Life Left Behind
by Kiara7
Summary: Draco and Harry break up right before graduation. After Hogwarts, Draco disappears for reasons unknown and is found ten years later living in New York City as a muggle with an eight year old daughter. Slash: Draco/Harry. PG13 for language. Complete.
1. Prologue

**Not JK Rowling.  Anything you recognize is hers.  Anything else including the plot is mine.  I am making no money off this trifle of a story.**

*~*~*~*~*

"I'm sorry, Harry, but I think its time that we see other people."  Draco bit his lip and tried to avoid the hurt welling in Harry's eyes through the physical outlet of tears pooling and blurring the emerald shade that Draco was so accustomed to staring into.

At first, Harry didn't reply.  He just stood across from Draco in the privacy of the Head Boy room, staring at him as if Draco had just hit him.  His fingers were balling into fists and he was finding himself teetering, striving to obtain equilibrium as he resisted the urge to both hit him and beg to be taken back.  Neither reaction seemed appropriate and so Harry remained quiet, silently brooding until he could find a response that did feel suitable.

"You mean that you're breaking up with me," said Harry at length, voice even, and finally breaking the silence.  He rubbed at the sore muscles in his neck and looked past Draco to the window just beyond his shoulder.  "On today of all days, you're breaking up with me."

Draco sighed.  "We're graduating tomorrow, Harry.  There's no way we can continue as a couple.  School is over and we're going to be out in the real world.  Hogwarts won't be there to protect us.  Unless you can come up with a better option because I have none."

"Gee, Draco, I don't know," snapped Harry.  "How about you don't become a Death Eater?  I know you don't want to.  You've been complaining all year about how the Death Eaters are pathetic."

"I have no choice in the matter.  You know who my father is.  You knew when we got together and I've been warning you all year that this day was going to come.  Ever since we got together I told you that I was going to have to become a Death Eater after I graduated.  Well, tomorrow is graduation.  Our time together is over."

"Why does it always have to be that way with you, Draco?  Why do you always have to do everything Lucius tells you to do?"

"I respect him, Harry.  He's my father and I'm just abiding by what he thinks is best for me."

"What do you think is best for you?"

Shaking his head, Draco crossed his arms and sighed a second time.  "It doesn't matter what I think.  My father knows what's best for me and he wants me to become a Death Eater.  I've told you this countless times.  I should think that you would have listened by now."

"You're a coward, you know that?" Harry hissed at him, equal parts anger and disappointment mingled in with the hurt Draco had seen there before.  He had to look away because seeing Harry look at him like that made him sick.  "You're such a fucking coward, Draco."

"I'm doing what I have to do."  His voice was soft but commanding, a tone that Harry had frequently heard Lucius Malfoy use over the years.  It was the kind of tone that demanded respect and did not have to be loud because the sheer lack of volume created an air of unease alone that held authority.  It gave the person in control of that voice advantage because the precise and commanding qualities to it were overwhelming in one's mind.

Harry nodded.  "Fine.  It's been nice, Draco.  I'll see you out there eventually.  Try to be somewhat merciful when you kill me again."

He turned and stalked from Draco's room, allowing the door to swing on its hinges as he had not bothered to close it.  For a long time Draco stared at the empty doorway, mentally willing Harry to come back before he gave up hope, collapsed on his bed, and cried until his tear ducts were dry.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Draco?  Hello?  Earth to Draco.  Draco, come in.  Draco, this is Houston.  Can you read me?  DRACO!"

Draco jumped; his head snapping up at the vision of a dim, empty coffee shop came into view.  He looked down at the rag clutched in his hand and finished wiping up the counter where he had been working before drifting.  Beside him he could feel a set of eyes on him and Draco tried to ignore it but before long he disposed of his rag and turned to face his coworker.

"What is it, Gwen?" he finally asked.

"What's with you?" she retorted.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure you don't.  Look, Malfoy, we've been friends for a while now, right?"  Draco shrugged, nodding.  "I've come to know you pretty well and I know when something is up."

"Nothing-"

"And when you're lying about it," she finished grinning.  He sighed.  "What is it?"

"It _really is nothing.  I was just thinking."_

She arched her eyebrow and leaned onto the counter.  "About?"

"Just stuff," he mumbled.  "Cherish.  Melody.  Stuff."

"How _are things with you and Melody?"_

"Good I guess."  He paused, looking to the clock on the wall.  "I'm done cleaning up.  Can we lock up and go home now?"

"Sure," she replied, moving into a storage room and reemerging with two jackets.  Passing one to Draco and pulling on her own, she extracted a set of keys from her pocket and walked toward the door.  He followed close behind and once outside, Draco pulled the black material closer around his body and pulled up the zipper.  Gwen locked the doors to the coffee shop.  "See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah," he replied, watching the small puff of air that had been produced by his breath in the late November chill.  "Night, Gwen."

"Night, Draco."

Turning in opposite directions, they headed off down the sidewalk.

Even when it was past ten o'clock at night, New York City was still alive with traffic, lights so bright they threatened to blind him.  He headed down the streets of Greenwich Village in the direction of his apartment building, the sound of his keys loudly jingling in his pocket.  This had to be one of Draco's favorite times of the day, walking home after a long day at work when the city felt alive and pumping with energy.

The only problem with his nightly walks was that they gave him time to think, a pastime that Draco had revoked any interest in two years ago when he first moved to the city and the country all together.  Upon arriving in the city he had began looking for an apartment and when he found the place he currently resided in, he also found three new friends.  With his job at the coffee shop, he had found a friend in Gwen.  Thinking led to remembering and Draco quite preferred to focus on his new life rather than remember the hell he went through in the old one.

Gwen.  That certainly had been a close run in.  Draco wasn't sure what had happened.  One minute he and Gwen were chatting about the latest Dave Matthews album and then she disappeared into storage for no more than five minutes.  Through that time, without Gwen to keep him occupied or customers to wait on as he cleaned up, his thoughts had drifted back to the day before his graduation, the whole ordeal playing over again in his head.

That was someplace he didn't want his mind to go again.  Not to England, not to Hogwarts, and certainly not to Harry.  Draco was bisexual, had been to his own knowledge since he was fifteen, and Harry was the stereotypical one who got away in Draco's life.  However, Harry hadn't really gotten away since it was Draco who ended it over two years ago.  He had set the path for his own personal disaster and Draco never really got around to forgiving himself for it.

Draco moved to New York City from London, England only two years ago in an attempt to start a new life.  He seemed to have come out of nowhere to his new friends which was mostly true.  Even in London he would have seemed foreign since Draco was not just an average person.  Draco Malfoy was a wizard and a good one at that who had graduated as top boy of his year at his wizarding school, Hogwarts.  Harry, who was also a wizard, had unfortunately been on the opposite side of Draco's coin of fate.

In the wizarding world, Harry Potter had been probably the most famous name you could ever utter.  As there is all good magic, there is also dark, and the Lord Voldemort was the most powerful and darkest wizard of Draco's time.  Harry was the one who had so conveniently been the one to cause Voldemort's first fall from power and continued to deny him of completely regaining the strength he once had.  Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father, was a Death Eater, supporter of Voldemort.  Draco had gotten stuck in the middle, forced to choose between his love and his father.

Ultimately, he chose his father over Harry and ended their relationship with the full intent of becoming a Death Eater himself.  He graduated, left Hogwarts forever, and went back to Malfoy manor for the summer holiday.  Everything seemed to be set in stone only when Lucius had confronted Draco about his initiation, Draco couldn't bring himself to agree.  He had said no, he would not become a Death Eater, and had to leave home.  Too ashamed to go to Harry, it was then that he decided to start over and after all his affairs were in order, he found himself on a plane to New York.

No one here knew about Draco's past.  He told his new friends a watered down version of the truth: that Draco and his father disagreed on a matter of inheritance and Draco had been disowned.  Not wanting to live in England any longer, Draco had decided to move to America where he became a citizen.  He lived with his roommate, Joel, had a girlfriend, Melody, and worked five nights a week at a coffee shop four city blocks away from his apartment.

The only memento he still had of being a wizard was his wand.  It was eleven inches, made of mahogany, and contained a dragon heartstring in its core.  He never used it but polished it often and kept it packed away in a tiny box hidden under a loose floorboard in his closet.  Even now that he had started over, he couldn't bear to part with his precious wand as he felt it was too much a part of him to ever destroy.  It just might take the last of his sanity with it.

For the first time in his life, Draco had friends.  Four wonderful ones, in fact, who included Gwen, Joel, Melody, and Melody's roommate, Samantha.  Gwen Norris was his age and went to school at Fordham University where she studied Dance.  Joel Montgomery, Samantha Straker, and Melody Fontana were all four years his elder and had been students at New York University together.  Samantha and Joel were best friends from high school and Samantha lived just across the hall from Joel and Draco.  It was Joel who had persuaded Draco to ask Melody out in the first place as he was still brooding.  He never told them about Harry because though they knew about his sexuality, Harry was a private subject to Draco and it remained just as locked in the back of his mind as his wand was in his closet.

Instead of disclosing information about Harry, Draco caved to Joel and asked Melody to dinner.  Seventeen months later they were still together with a five month old daughter by the name of Cherish.  Draco couldn't say that he loved Melody because though he cared for her, Harry still held a big part of his heart and was awful stubborn about letting go.  He should know because Draco had tried repeatedly with no avail to shake Harry forever from his mind.  Draco supposed that it never worked at Hogwarts so why should New York be any different.

When the sight of his building came into view, Draco pushed the thoughts as far away from his mind as possible and reached into his pocket for his key.

*~*~*~*~*

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	2. Pudding

**Not JK Rowling.  Don't own Harry Potter.  Anything you recognize is hers, anything you don't is mine including the plot and Mr. Joel Montgomery.  I am making no money off this trifle of a story.**

*~*~*~*~*

Walking out of the elevator, Draco stepped out onto his floor and turned left as he headed for his apartment.  Reaching number 1512, the last door on the left before reaching the stairwell, Draco inserted his key, turned, and upon hearing a click, turned the knob to walk in.

The light was on and Draco figured Joel was home and somewhere wandering around the apartment.  For a moment he stood in the doorway staring at the large black garbage bag sitting in the middle of the living room with small cardboard boxes poking at the top.  Next to it was another garbage bag of what seemed like empty gallons of milk.

Shaking his head, Draco shut the door behind him and took his coat off to hang on the hooks by the door.  He headed for the living room, tossing his keys to the kitchen table right by the door and was greeted with a loud bang.  Stopping in his tracks, Draco turned to see the kitchen table had lost a leg and had fallen over onto the tile.

Draco cocked an eyebrow.  "Joel!"  There was a rustling heard behind the bathroom door and Draco tried to look around the corner of the kitchen counter to see the bathroom door.  "Joel!"

The door opened and Joel Montgomery emerged dressed in green boxer shorts with a print of powdered toast on it, a frilly white and pink striped apron, and remnants of what looked like a creamy substance caked on his apron, hands, and face.

"What?"

Draco stared at his roommate, mouth opened and eyes bugged making him look very much like a fish.  "Nevermind."

Joel licked his index finger.  "No really.  What is it?"

"What were you doing?"

"Making pudding in the bathtub," replied Joel.

"Our bathtub?"

"Well yeah.  I'm not going to go down the hall and ask old Mister Prewitt if I can use his bathtub.  Besides, can you imagine how gross that would be?  Don't worry, though.  I cleaned the tub with dish soap very thoroughly before I began."

Draco had been rendered speechless.  "Er - okay.  How did you go about making pudding in a bathtub?  Don't you need to put that stuff in the refrigerator?"

"Yeah so I went out and bought three air conditioners.  I had to go into your cash stash a bit but don't worry, I'll pay you back."

"What are we going to do with three air conditioners after you're finished with your pudding?  Where did you even _find air conditioners?  It's almost December!"_

"I have my ways," Joel said with a wink.  "And I'm sure we'll find something to do with them.  I'll come up with something.  Just give me two weeks and a lot of vodka."

"Charming."

"So what did you want me for anyway?"

Draco shifted his gaze from Joel to the lopsided kitchen table.  "All I did was put my keys on the table and it came crashing to the ground."

"Oh yeah," replied Joel, unfazed.  "There's a bottle of super glue in the drawer under the counter."

"What?"

"I've been fixing that leg for years."

"How did I not notice this?"

Joel shrugged.  "I don't know.  You don't spend enough time in the apartment I guess."

"Why don't you just get a new table?"

"Because super glue is cheaper," said Joel as if that were the most obvious response.

"Of course.  Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because you don't have my superior level of intelligence."  Joel stared at Draco and the table, shrugged and headed back for the bathroom.  "I'll let you know when it's done.  You're going to have to try this."

Visibly shuddering at the thought of trying any of Joel's cooking much less cooking from the bathtub, Draco headed for the drawers under the counter that separated the kitchen and the living room.  Thinking it would be so much easier if he could just go get his wand, a thought that frequented his mind during the day, Draco opened a drawer, shrieked, and shut it again.

"Not the one on the left!" Joel called from behind the closed bathroom door.  "There's something living in that drawer.  I think it's a demon rat!"

"_That was __not a rat!  I've seen rats and that was not a rat!"_

"That's why I said it was a demon rat," replied Joel.  "It's been in there for about three weeks.  I'm trying to suffocate it but you just gave it oxygen so I think its going to be around for a good two months.  Or three.  I don't know the anatomy and life expectancy of demon rats.  Just keep the drawer on the left shut.  Maybe then it will die."

"Right," Draco mumbled to himself as he pulled open the drawer on the right.  Before beginning his search for the super glue, he extracted a roll of masking tape, held it momentarily, and then began to tape the other drawer shut.  Once he was satisfied that the demon rat would not escape, he began digging through rolls of tape, post its, pens, pencils, and other various office supplies until finding the bottle of super glue.  "This is insane."

He wandered over to the lopsided table, dropped to his knees, and searched through the debris for the missing table leg.  Once it was extracted from the ruins, Draco propped the table on his back and began smearing the super glue onto both the leg and the table where they were supposed to meet.  Shoving the leg back onto the table, Draco wedged it into place and crawled out from beneath the table.  As soon as he let go of the edge, the entire table went toppling over again and Draco tried the method a second time.

"It's not working, Joel!"

The bathroom door opened a second time and Joel emerged once again.  "How many times did you try it?"

"Three."

"Oh."  Joel shrugged.  "Okay then.  I guess we do need a new table.  Come on, help me throw it out the window."

"Out the window?  Joel, we're fifteen stories high."

"What's your point?"

Rolling his eyes, Draco said, "That we can't just chuck it out the window."

"Sure we can.  Go down to the street and make sure you clear the way.  Then we just hoist the thing out."

"Or we could break the table apart, put the pieces in a trash bag, and throw it away."

Joel's eyes brightened.  "We can break the table into pieces?"  Recognizing Joel's appetite for destruction, Draco nodded.  "Excellent.  We'll do that.  First, come try my pudding.  It's good.  Really.  Just grab a spoon and come on.  I like it, anyway."

"That isn't saying much," said Draco.  "What flavor?"

"Vanilla."

Shrugging, Draco walked out from behind the table, grabbed a plastic spoon from their big bin of plastic wear on the counter, and headed into the bathroom behind Joel.  The bathtub was filled close to the brim with Jell-O instant vanilla pudding and Joel sat down on the toilet, reached in with his fingers, and took a handful.  After his old friends Crabbe and Goyle back at Hogwarts, Joel was like having dinner with Miss Manners herself.

"Good," said Draco after sampling some of the dessert.  "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"What do you plan on doing with all this pudding?"

Joel seemed lost for a moment then shrugged.  "I don't know.  Eat it, I guess.  I mean, I guess we have to do _something with it.  How about we store it in here with the air conditioners going and use Samantha's bathroom until we get it cleaned out?"_

"Samantha is going to lose it when you tell her what you did," said Draco.

"Oh come on.  It's a bathtub full of pudding.  It's like my fucking dream come true, man.  Its like, a whole bathtub of pudding.  That's a lot of pudding, man.  Shit, son, its like-"

"Are you okay?"

"I will be."  Joel grinned and a large dollop of pudding seethed from his teeth.  "So how was work?"

"Eh," he replied, shrugging.

"That good, huh?"

"Well, you know.  Gwen's great but I could do without the holier than thou business executive attitude customers get when they come in, order their latte mocha whatever and look at me like I'm scum because I work at a coffee house and they're a bunch of stock brokers."

"Wall Street rears its ugly head," said Joel, laughing.  "So where's Cherish tonight?"

"Melody said she'd bring her by late tonight."

Joel hesitated in speaking, opened his mouth as if he were going to speak, and then thought better of it by shutting it again.

"What?" asked Draco.  "Why is it that whenever Melody gets brought up, people start acting like something's wrong?"

Sighing, Joel leaned back and pulled off the apron, letting it fall to the floor.  "How are things between you and Mel?  I mean, I don't know, she seems kind of distant lately.  She's been keeping Cherish a lot more and letting you have her a lot less and - I don't know, Draco - I guess I just don't trust her."

"You've noticed that, too?"

Joel shrugged.  "Its hard not to.  You know, Sam told me that Mel was complaining because she feels that you don't really love her and Cherish.  It's like, you two have this kid and-shit, I don't know.  Sam and I think she's waiting for you to propose."

"I know she is," said Draco, closing his eyes and dropping his head in his hands.  "I can't do that, Joel.  Honestly, and shit this is difficult for me to say, she isn't completely wrong when she says that I don't love her.  I _don't love Mel in a romantic notion.  I love her as a friend but-" Draco sighed._

"Is this about the mystery ex?"  Draco nodded.  "I don't know who this person was but Draco, man, you really need to get over her.  Or him.  Or whatever.  Sheep.  Goat. Small child.  I don't care.  You need to get over it and move on otherwise you're never going to fall in love again.  Mel doesn't deserve this."

"I know that.  I love Cherish.  I love her to death.  I just can't love Mel.  She's a great friend but she isn't - well."  Draco rubbed at his eyes because no, he was not going to allow himself to think about Harry.  Thinking about Harry led to missing Harry.  Missing Harry only led to confused emotions barreling through him at a speed far too rapid for his head to keep up.  Harry was a part of the old life and he was embracing the adage of out with the old, in with the new.

"I thought I could fall in love with her one day," said Draco.  "Maybe I just need more time."

"Maybe," said Joel.  "You feel the need to get out your frustrations?"

"Yes.  Please."

"Then come on.  We got a kitchen table to destroy."  Joel gave Draco a sly grin before disappearing into the living room.  Draco followed, looking at the garbage bags still in the middle of the room containing the packaging for enough pudding to fill a bathtub.  

"A penchant for pudding and an appetite for destruction," Draco mused.

Joel emerged from his bedroom in a pair of faded jeans and a tight black t-shirt.  His dark brown hair was hanging just over his eyes.  In each of his hands was a mallet.  Reaching out, Draco took a mallet from Joel and they began to hack away at the table.  Pieces of wood were flying about as Draco channeled all of his emotion into his arms, swinging wildly at the table and imagining he was beating himself for all the stupid decisions he had ever made.  He should have never broken up with Harry.  He should have never let himself get involved with someone else so soon.  He should have never slept with Melody because now he had a daughter and though he wouldn't trade her for the world, it made the new life that much more complicated.

Through the pounding, they never noticed the door opening and shutting until someone cleared their throat and Draco and Joel turned to see Samantha and Melody standing by the door.  Samantha was holding a paper bag of groceries and Melody was cradling a sleeping Cherish in her arms.

"What are you doing?" asked Samantha, staring at Draco and Joel sitting in the splintered remains of their kitchen table.

"Our table broke," explained Draco.

"Looks to me like you were the ones breaking it," said Melody and Draco stood up to give her a kiss.  Taking Cherish out of her arms, he carried her into his bedroom to lay her in her crib before returning to the kitchen where Joel was explaining their motives.

"And we couldn't glue the leg back on so Draco suggested we break it up and throw the pieces away."

"It was already broken," said Draco.

"Well it's about time," said Samantha as she set the groceries on the counter.  "You've been gluing that leg on for years.  I knew that one of these days it just wasn't going to hold anymore."  She paused as she reached into the bag.  "Do I smell pudding?"

"Yep.  I made it myself," said Joel.

"In the bathtub," added Draco.

"No shit!" cried Samantha.  "What kind?"

"Vanilla," said Joel.

"Let me at it."  Samantha grabbed a spoon and went running for their bathroom.  Draco, Melody, and Joel followed.

"So how did you make vanilla pudding in your bathtub," Melody asked, leaning against the doorway and smiling as she felt Draco's arms wrap around her waist.

"Lots and lots of instant pudding and milk," was Joel's reply.

"He bought three air conditioners," said Draco.

"I needed a refrigeration effect."

"It felt more like a freezer."

"Hey, it was a lot of pudding.  I was impatient."

"Joel, you are one of the strangest people I know and that is saying something."

"Are you saying you know a lot of freaks?" asked Samantha as she ate the pudding.

Draco shrugged.  "Let's just say they were hard to avoid when I was living in England."

"You have to take us there someday," said Melody.  "We could all go on vacation together.  You could show us where you grew up and everything."

Forcing a smile, Draco said, "Maybe one day when I can get over what happened."

"Do you honestly think your father is still angry?" asked Melody as they left the bathroom and headed back to the kitchen.

"I know that my father is still furious," replied Draco.  "What is that?"

"Soup.  Sam and I thought you and Joel may be hungry.  Are you?"

"I'm always hungry," Joel said, sitting down at the counter.  Samantha heated up the four bowls of soup in the microwave before handing them out and they sat at the counter to eat since the table was now destroyed.

"So what's up with you, Joel?" asked Melody.  "Still working on that short story."

"Yes," groaned Joel.  "I think my characters hate me.  I got a check in the mail today for a publication of one of my articles in Playboy."

"You know what the sad thing about Joel is?" said Draco.  "He actually isn't lying when he says he buys Playboy for the articles."

"It may be a nudie magazine but it has got some fine literature," replied Joel.  "Pays well, too."

"Our friend, the struggling writer," teased Samantha.

"Our friend, the buyer," teased Joel.

"The sad thing about Sam is that she had to become a buyer for a living to ease her urge for buying in her free time," said Melody.  Draco snickered.

"I feel so left out," said Draco.  "You all have careers and I work at a coffee shop.  I'm a waiter."

"You're four years younger than us plus you only moved here two years ago.  And food service is very respectable."

"You have to say that.  You're my girlfriend."  Melody shrugged and placed a kiss to Draco's lips.  "I don't know.  I was thinking about looking at colleges.  I want to do something I just don't know what yet."

"You have plenty of time to figure it out," reassured Samantha, "until then, you can continue to get me discounts on my overpriced cappuccino."

"Uncle Sam's a bitch," said Joel.  "Fucking taxes.  Fucking America.  Let's all move to Canada and protest."

Draco laughed.  "I already switched countries once.  I'm not about to go and do it again."

"Oh yeah.  I keep forgetting you're English."

"Okay, guys, what's wrong with me?  I'm eating my soup with a fork," said Melody, lifting her fork from her bowl.

Looking guiltily at Melody, Draco said, "So am I," and lifted his own fork.  He was immediately followed by both Samantha and Joel.

"Oh my god, I thought I was such a freak," said Melody, laughing.  "I can't believe you were eating it with forks, too."

"What is wrong with us?" asked Draco, turning over his fork.

"So many answers to that question," said Samantha.  "I mean, you eat honey straight from the plastic bear."

"I see nothing wrong with that," protested Draco.  "Well Joel makes pudding in the bathtub, buys Playboy for the articles, and speaks Japanese in China town trying to piss people off."

"At least I'm fluent in Japanese," said Joel.  "Sam used to believe she was the reincarnate spirit of Cleopatra."

Sam pouted.  "Why isn't anyone attacking Melody, here?"

"Because Melody is normal," said Melody.  "I've never gone to Las Vegas and spent my time there scoring the Elvis impersonators to find the one that was most likely 'The King'."

Draco cocked an eyebrow.

"That was only one time and it was our graduation trip," said Samantha.  "I'll also have you know that Joel and I had a very good time on that trip and its one of my favorite memories ever."

"Is it really?" Joel said, grinning, and apparently touched.

"Yes it is," replied Samantha, also grinning.

"Oh you are so sweet.  You are my best friend ever."  Samantha laughed.

"As much as I love being attacked and visiting with my favorite freaks, Mel and I should get back over the apartment.  We both need to sleep for work in the morning."

"I'll be over at ten," said Joel.  "Leave the door open."

"Why?" asked Melody as they headed for the door.

"I have to take a shower.  There's pudding in mine."

"I'll be over for that purpose as well," said Draco.

"You're lucky we love you," said Samantha and Draco kissed Melody goodbye before the girls disappeared to their own apartment.

"That went well," said Joel.

Draco sighed, staring at the closed door.  "What am I going to do about her?"

"I don't know but you better come up with something before you come home from work one day and both she and Cherish are gone.  You don't want to lose your daughter."

"No," said Draco, shaking his head.  "I need sleep.  I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight," said Joel, watching Draco until he disappeared into his bedroom.

Shutting the door behind him, Draco walked over to the crib where Cherish lay asleep.  He peered over the railing at her, watching her tiny chest rise and fall as she slept.  Tears welled up in his eyes at Joel's words.  Thinking about Melody taking Cherish, the one person left in his life he loved, was not what he needed tonight when Harry of all people had seeped back into his thoughts.  Not even the pudding incident, a typical occurrence when living with Joel Montgomery, was enough to shake off his feeling of dread.

Leaving her crib, Draco crept into his closet and grabbed a flashlight from just by the door.  Turning it on, he crawled to the back corner and began to pull up the loose carpeting.  Prying up the loose floorboard, Draco removed the long, slick black box and he leaned back against the wall.  He grabbed a cloth sitting nearby and a small bottle of polish to set it beside him.  Lifting the lid, he removed the familiar strip of wood and he felt warmth in his hand.

Sitting in his closet, holding his magic wand, Draco could do little to deny the life he left behind for one that was turning out to be almost as painful.  As he set about polishing his wand, Draco allowed his thoughts to freely drift to Hogwarts, Harry, and his yen for the wizard world.  He missed the familiar places of his childhood badly, Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, and Hogwarts most of all.  Even more than the places, he missed the people.  Never did Draco think he would be missing the Weasleys and their flaming red hair, but now that it wasn't there to see daily, Draco did indeed miss it.  He missed his teachers, especially Professor Snape, and he missed the headmaster who seemed to know everything.  Even part of Draco missed Professor Trelawney, the Divination teacher who was always claiming that he, Harry, and the rest of his fellow classmates were going to die.  It really tended to be quite a downer but if it meant being back at Hogwarts, Draco would listen to her go on about the Grim a thousand times.

Sometimes he wanted to tell Joel, if not Samantha and Melody, about what he was.  He wondered about Cherish and if, since he was a wizard but Melody was a muggle, if his daughter would be a witch or not.  Cherish already had the Malfoy eyes, bright and a grey that almost looked like silver.  For a baby, she was very pale and Draco expected that wouldn't go away as she got older.  Most of the Malfoys were paler than white and Draco often thought the bunch together looked like some twisted form of a Deathday Party.  He wouldn't be surprised if, with Melody also being blonde, Cherish ended up with same platinum hair he had.

Gazing down at his wand, Draco could feel more tears prick at his eyes but he wouldn't let them spill over tonight.  With the most reluctant of gestures, Draco wrapped his wand in a piece of torn t-shirt before putting it back in the box and under the floorboard.  He replaced the carpeting and the flashlight as he crawled out and shut the door to the closet before changing and sliding into bed praying for a better day tomorrow.

*~*~*~*~*

**Loved something?  Hated something?  Tell me in a REVIEW or email me at angeldlsm00@hotmail.com**


	3. A Tool of Satan

**I know, it takes a while for Harry/Draco to emerge but it _does happen.  Harry __is coming.  The groundwork just needs to be laid.  I __did say it would be ten years after Hogwarts and this is only two.  Thank you for getting this far in a fic that I was hesitant to post because I feared the ignorant reaction like I responded to below._**

**Thanks to those who reviewed:**

Nadua:  I'm sorry, perhaps while you were "reading" my story you also became devoid of a brain.  You seem to think this is a female character story but had you read the summary you'd notice that this is _clearly a Harry/Draco fic and that Melody will be going bye-bye in upcoming chapters.  Maybe you should have given some time to this before you flamed me for writing it.  You say its OOC and while that's true if you're thinking of Draco in terms of the fourth book, I'd like to point out that Draco is twenty years old, two years after Hogwarts and six years after his fourth year. Unless I'm living in a society where people are stagnant and change is only a fairy-tale, I was under the impression that I clearly delineating that things happened, which I'll be going further to in the future because __no one in their right mind gives away the story in the prologue, to Draco that caused him to do the things he's doing.  So no, I did not forget his prejudice against muggles.  It is pointed out (and if it wasn't, it will be in the future) that when he left home, he was too burned by the magical world to remain in it and decided to try something new.  And it wouldn't be the first time someone got pregnant by accident, certainly won't be the last.  As for your eloquent comment, __Whatever, I have only to say:  Put away you early-nineties valley-girl speak.  It will not fly with me.  If you think pudding is boring, go read something else. Don't spend two chapters "reading" a story that you obviously didn't like.  And for your information, her name is Cherish, not Charity.  Way to really "read" a story.****_

**Anyone who said nice things, thank for paying enough attention to the details and actually _reading the story to see that I was clearly explaining why the situation is the situation it is unlike __some people who automatically claim themselves rulers of all that is Harry Potter.  Any fans of this story, my "baby", you are held the highest in my regard.  It is obviously rare to find someone who does not have their head shoved permanently up their ass._**

ClarKeRaVen:  Thank you very much for your review.  As I've said, the holes are there for a purpose and I hope they'll be filled in for my readers.  If they aren't, at least people will get laughs out of Joel, who consequently just keeps getting stranger and stranger.  I appreciate your comments.  It's nice to know someone was paying attention to the details.

**~Kiara**

**Not JK Rowling.  Don't own Harry Potter.  Anything you recognize is hers, anything you don't is mine including the plot and Mr. Joel Montgomery.  I am making no money off this trifle of a story.**

*~*~*~*~*

Rolling over in bed, Draco fell off the edge of the mattress bringing an array of sheets and blankets with him on the descent that was anything but graceful.  As he pulled the blankets away from his body and threw them back onto the bed, Draco groaned and stood up, rubbing the offended flesh of his lower back where the floor had assaulted him.  Cherish was crying from her crib and Draco wiped the sleep from his eyes as he made his way over to his daughter.

"Morning, babe," said Draco in a dreary, sleepy voice as he lifted Cherish from her crib.  She continued to wail.  "I know.  I know.  You're hungry, you're irritable, and you hate mornings.  Welcome to the real world.  It sucks.  You're going to love it."

Cradling Cherish close into his chest, Draco rubbed her back and headed out of his bedroom in the direction of the kitchen.  Joel was already up, sitting at the counter and downing what looked to be like a very strong cup of black coffee.  As Joel was most mornings, he wore a frown on his face and only offered Draco a grunt of a hello when he emerged.  Sitting Cherish in the playpen, Draco headed to the kitchen to make her a bottle, still half asleep himself and not looking like he was faring off much better than Joel.

"Hey," grunted Draco, his voice still deep and groggy from sleep.

Joel groaned.  "I had the weirdest dream."

"You always have the weirdest dreams."  Joel thought about this for a second then nodded.  "Shouldn't that be a good thing?  You're strangest dreams always seem to turn into your best stories."

Shrugging, Joel said, "I guess so.  Maybe I can get over this case of writer's block."

"Let's hope so.  So what happened?"

"Uh-I was back in high school only it wasn't a regular high school.  It was like, a high school for witches or something."

Draco dropped the bottle he had been holding, eyes going wide and now feeling fully alert.  "Really."

Oblivious, Joel wiped his eyes and nodded.  "Yeah.  It was this magic school and you and Melody were there, too.  Mel was a witch and you were a wizard, I guess.  I was the weirdest dream.  We were fighting this guy with really bad hair.  He needed to work out too because I'll tell you, this wizard was scrawny."

"Well not everyone can be as sculpted and manly as you, Joel."

"I know that.  Look at you."  Draco scowled, still visibly shaking as he pulled Cherish from the playpen and sat down on the couch, feeding her.

"Funny.  So what are you going to do with it?  Story springboard like the crazy girl with the poison or just a dream, like the one where I got baked into a potato pie?"  Draco waited with bated breath.

Wandering over to where Draco was sitting, Joel dropped into the cushion beside him.  "Story springboard.  I already wrote down everything I could remember.  You want to be my right hand man?"

"Aren't I always?"

"Excellent.  You're the best critic.  You'll tell me if my story's reeking.  I think this is going to be a novel, though."

"Novel?" asked Draco, cocking an eyebrow.  "That's a step up, now isn't it?"

"Yeah.  You know what?  I need to sell a story soon because I'm finding it rather inconvenient that we don't have a kitchen table."

"It's been five days, Joel.  You can't be suffering that badly.  Didn't you just sell a story to Playboy, anyway?"

"Yeah but I celebrated with the pudding."

"Which is still in our tub.  It's almost been a week, Joel.  I'm sick of going across the hall when I need to piss."

"When we get rid of the pudding, you can piss in our bathroom again.  Until then, no one is going to do anything in that bathroom that could possibly contaminate what is most likely the one and only thing I will have ever cooked that ended us tasting good."

Draco sighed.  "I see your point.  So what's today's agenda?"

"Prewriting for this novel, working on the short story, eating some of that pudding, and the gym.  Maybe the tanning booth, too.  I hate getting pale and pasty in the winter."

"I'm pale and pasty all year long.  What do you need to go to the tanning booth for, anyway.  Pale and pasty would be the last adjectives I'd use to describe you.  You're always about a million shades darker than me."

"Yeah, what's up with that?  Are you just naturally that pale?"

"My whole family is," replied Draco.  "Cherish probably will be, too."

"Same thing with the hair?"  Draco nodded.  "Your hair kind of intimidates me.  I've never seen hair that platinum before except on babies."

Shrugging, Draco finished feeding Cherish and had put her back in the playpen before grabbing himself a cup of coffee.  "I'm tiny, blond, and pale.  All Malfoy traits."

"You're family must be one hell of a bunch to look at."  Draco shrugged.

He hadn't really thought about it before because of growing up in it, but now that he was living away from his family and the wizarding world all together, he supposed that the sight of a Malfoy family reunion would probably be quite odd to see.  It was something that he noticed right away when arriving in New York, though he didn't really seem to stick out due to the exotic ways that muggles seemed to be dressing and accessorizing here.  Next to Joel, especially, Draco was suddenly aware of his petit and fine features.

Joel was tall, tan, rugged, and Draco got the distinct impression that when the phrase tall, dark, and handsome had been uttered, the speaker was talking about Joel.  From what he learned about muggle fashion, the only thing Draco and Joel had in common was their expensive taste in clothes and a lack of money to acquire said articles of clothing.  Samantha often said they were like two pathetic high school girls with the way they would visit clothing, promising that one day they would buy it.  He supposed these things were the main reason Joel was never home on Friday nights and when he was, Draco was out because hearing Joel's headboard bang against the wall wasn't his ideal way of spending the night.

While Draco was dressing Cherish for the day, Joel went across the hall to Samantha and Melody's apartment to take a shower.  When he returned, Draco left Cherish with Joel and headed over to take his own shower.  The girls' apartment was empty since they both worked in the morning, Samantha at Macy's and Melody at Bloomingdales.  Seeing the door to Melody's room, Draco felt a sense of guilt but he tried to ignore it and headed into the bathroom to clean up for the day.

Stepping under the hot spray, Draco thought of Joel's new novel idea and he wondered how he was going to be able to sit back and watch Joel write the book without having a heart attack.  While the thought unsettled him to be having his roommate writing about witches and wizards, Draco was always the person Joel came to with his stories first and Draco read them obligingly, critiquing along the way.  There was no way he could stop now without becoming suspicious and part of him didn't know if the heart attack was going to come from the obvious reaction to something so similar to what his old life had been or if it would come from the bitter reactions that were bound to ensue when Joel got something inaccurate about the wizarding world.

As much as he would hate to admit it, he knew that both options were going to drive him crazy but the latter would be the one to drive him over the edge.  All it would take would be for Joel to put something like ribbon on the magic wands and Draco would go into a hissy fit.  Draco figured that, for his sanity, it wouldn't hurt to give Joel a gentle nudge in the right direction and if Joel didn't go for that, Draco would give him a shove.

Climbing out of the shower, Draco wrapped a towel around his waist and went to brush his teeth.  After drying off, washing his face, and dressing in sweats for a lazy day of lying around since he had the day off, Draco headed back across the hall to his own apartment.

"I was thinking," said Draco as he stepped inside, "that maybe I could help you come up with stuff for the novel.  You know.  I could help come up with places like wizarding towns and all the special wizard items."

"I didn't even think of that shit," said Joel.  "I don't even really have a plot."

"The plot is all yours but I'll help with details.  I got some ideas in the shower."

"Cool."  Joel shrugged and reached over to the coffee table, grabbing a notebook and pen.  "Let's get started."

"Okay.  First off, they're witches and wizards, right?  They should have wands."

"Magic wands?"  Draco nodded.  "What kind of wands?  Like fairy wands?"

Visibly grimacing, Draco shook his head.  "No.  Just strips of wood.  Say that every wand is different.  No two wands are the same just as no two people are the same.  In the core of the wood can be some sort of magical substance like unicorn hair, dragon heartstring, or phoenix feathers.  And the wand should choose the wizard kind of in the way that you say a genre chooses the writer."

"I think you think about this stuff too much."

"I'm just imaginative and so far, all your stuff has been mundane."

"Point taken.  Don't have to get snappy."  Draco grinned.  "So what else you got?"

"Robes."

"Robes?"

"Yes.  They should wear robes.  Cloaks.  That kind of thing."

Joel shrugged.  "Okay."

"And they can send their mail by owl."

"Owl?  Draco, did you hit your head in that shower?"

"No.  I just thought they could send their mail by owl.  Tie letters to the owl's leg and such.  The Owl Post."

Joel made a note in his notebook.  "Owls it is.  You got anything else?"

"Of course," said Draco with a smirk.  "They can call non-magic people muggles."

"How does one spell 'muggle'?"

Draco spelled the word out for him.  "Should I keep going?"

"My god, Draco, what do you do with your spare time?  Sit around and think of what it would be like to be a wizard."

"Actually, sometimes," he replied, trying to force away the painful memory of just walking down Diagon Alley or being able to use his wand.  If he would have known back in Hogwarts that two weeks after Hogwarts he was going to be packing away his wand never to use it again, Draco would have taken far better care of it.  "You make pudding in bathtubs, I can surely want to be a wizard."

"I never said you'd couldn't.  Keep going."

"Okay.  Well they have classes, right?  Their classes can be things like Potions, and Charms, and Transfiguration.  They can fly on broomsticks."

"I always wanted to fly on a broomstick," mused Joel, making a note.  Suddenly Draco missed his old Firebolt very much.

"Me too," he half whispered.

Most of the day involved Draco and Joel tossing ideas back and forth for Joel's upcoming novel.  Whenever Joel would suggest something, Draco would nudge it in the right direction to become something that was factual in the wizarding world.  The part of Draco before that didn't want this novel to get written was gone and he was instead filled with anticipation.  If he couldn't go home, maybe he could somewhat live out life as a wizard through Joel and the new novel.

Somewhere around three, the door to their apartment opened and Melody strolled in, dropping her purse on the counter and flopping down into an armchair opposite where the boys were sitting on the couch.

"What're you guys doing?"

"I had this weird dream that I'm channeling into a story.  Draco has been actually useful today, too."

"Wow," she said, taking a sit of the coke in her hand.  "And what is this story about?"

"These kids who go to a school for witches and wizards and get into a lot of trouble," said Joel, grinning.

"We figured that getting into trouble was Joel's specialty," added Draco.

Melody scrunched up her nose and for a second, Draco thought she looked a lot like his mother.  "You can't be serious!"

"Why not?" asked Joel, putting his notebook back on the coffee table.

"Because all that stuff about witches and wizards and magic is nonsense.  It's sinful.  It goes against God's power.  Its disgusting how the media just accepts and exploits the whole witch and wizard myth.  If any such creatures did exist, all of their powers would be sinful anyway.  They'd be the devil incarnate."

Draco stared at his girlfriend, gaping.  He didn't know whether to find this funny or offensive.  Here she was calling all wizards evil when he, himself, was a wizard.  Not only that, but she was in love with him.

"Its only fiction, Mel," said Joel.  "Relax."

"No I will not," she replied.  "That stuff is evil.  I can't believe you're actually condoning something like this.  If magic did exist, it would be a tool of Satan."

"First off, Melody, if magic did exist, it would not be a tool of Satan," Draco cut in.  "Magic would be used depending on the one wielding such power.  You're condemning Joel for even thinking about writing something that's fiction because magic is a tool of Satan?"

"What's your problem, Draco?" she snapped.  "I was just expressing my opinion."

"No, you flat out told us that it was a tool of Satan.  You said it like it was a fact."

"It is a fact.  If you actually went to church, you'd know that."

"At least I don't go to church and pretend to be holier than thou when I've got an illegitimate child back at home."

"You know what," said Joel, "I think I'm going to go for a walk.  Meanwhile, you both need to chill out."  Carefully avoiding them, Joel walked out of the apartment and gently shut the door behind him.

"See what you did," she snapped at him.  "Because you had to be petty, and by the way, she's your illegitimate child as well, you chased Joel out."

"Oh, I'm sorry.  Did you want to chastise him some more?  And for those who care, I know that Cherish is my illegitimate child.  I just said that I don't go to church pretending like I don't have a child out of wedlock."

"I wouldn't have a child out of wedlock if you'd just marry me."

"I'm not going to marry you just because we have a daughter.  I would end up resenting you, you would resent me, and Cherish would resent us both."

"Why would you resent me?  I wouldn't resent you.  I love you, remember."

Draco sighed, running a hand through his hair.  "Is that what this attitude you've having with me lately is about?  Because I won't marry you?"

"I didn't have an attitude.  If anyone had an attitude, it would be you.  All I did was tell you the truth on what magic really is and you started freaking out at me."

"I started freaking out on you because you started preaching to me and Joel.  All Joel is trying to do is write a fucking story.  Fiction.  Look it up in the goddamn dictionary sometime, you narcissistic egomaniac."

"Don't you speak to me like that, Draco Malfoy."

"I'll speak to you however I'd like.  This is America and as I've learned by moving here, freedom of speech is available to me if I so choose to use it.  I'm not going to marry you, Melody.  We are not going to have a happy, picture perfect ending where we ride off into the sunset on a white horse making daisy chains.  I'm too fucked up for that and my heart still belongs too much to someone else."

"The mysterious ex.  You know, Draco, it's been two years.  If you were going to do this, why did you get involved with me anyway?"

"I don't know, okay?  I don't.  Maybe I was trying to get over him.  I don't know."

"So it was a him?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow.  "I think that's the first detail we ever got out of you.  You usually play the gender game."

Draco couldn't help the glare that escaped him.  "Fuck.  You.  I can't be here right now.  Goodbye, Melody."

With his last words, Draco walked over to the playpen where Cherish was laying.  He pulled on his own coat and gloves, dressing Cherish for the cold, and left the apartment with his daughter, too afraid that if he didn't, this would be that time when he'd lose Cherish forever.  His feet carried him in the direction of the coffee house as he pulled Cherish closer into his body.  Draco didn't realize how fast his feet were carrying him until he was stopped just outside the doors, pushed through with his free hand, and walked over to the counter.  Gwen was looking very bored sweeping the floor.

"I thought you don't work today," she said, setting her broom aside.

"I don't," he replied.  "I got into a fight with Melody."

She gave him a sympathetic smile and came around the counter to give him a small hug.  "I'm sorry.  Do you want something?  We can talk about it."

"Just coffee.  Black.  Oh.  And a scone."

Gwen smiled, getting him what he had asked for and sliding it before him.  Taking Cherish out of his arms, she cuddled the little girl as Draco began to eat.  "So what happened?"

"It was the stupidest thing.  I was helping Joel with this new novel he started.  It has to do with witches and wizards and all that magic hoopla.  Mel came in and she got all up in arms about it.  Said magic was a tool of Satan and I just snapped.  Started yelling at her for acting like she was model Christian of the year.  That drifted to the whole marriage issue and ended with me telling her that I was never going to marry her because my heart still belongs to the mysterious ex."

"Ouch.  That was cold."

"I know but I was angry."  Draco rubbed at his temples.  "I'm going to have to apologize but now she knows that I don't want to marry her.  Ever."

"Did she call you on the mysterious ex card?"

"Yeah and I was so angry I let a detail slip."

"You?  Mister I'm so anal retentively secret and private about my ex from high school that I won't even tell them the name or gender?"

"Yes," he moaned.

"Well now that you've slipped, you want to tell me?"

"Why not?  I let it slip to Mel that it was a he."

"A he?  Aw.  You're so cute that you're blushing.  Will you tell me his name or am I forced to guess?"

"Gwen-"

"If you tell me his name, I promise that I won't press you for what happened.  I already know that it ended because of something to do with your father and the fall out with your father is why you're here in New York.  That's all I need to know unless you decide to tell me.  But just a name?  Please?  I'll guess.  Is it Orion?"

"Not everyone from England has a constellation for their name," he replied.

"I'm sorry.  I love your name.  You know that.  So what was his name?"

Draco sighed.  "Harry."

"Is there a last name that goes with that or am I pushing my luck?"

"You were pushing your luck five minutes ago but you've caught me vulnerable."

She shrugged.  "It was worth a try."

"Potter."

"What?"

"His name was Potter.  Harry Potter.  Fucking Harry Potter."  Draco dropped his head into his hands.

"What the hell are you doing here?" came a voice and Draco looked up to see Samantha standing there, Joel beside her.  "Aw, let me hold Cher."  Gwen handed Cherish to Samantha and they sat down with Draco.

"I hate it when you call her Cher."

"That's only because for the first week Cher was born, every time I called her it, Joel broke out into a rousing chorus of 'If I Could Turn Back Time,'" replied Samantha.

"So what are you doing here?" asked Joel.

"The fight you saw start ended when I left with Cherish."

"The conversation apparently drifted to the marriage issue and Draco told her that his heart still belonged to someone else.  She pulled out the mysterious ex card and he was so flustered that he let the gender slip," explained Gwen.

Samantha and Joel looked to Draco, pleasantly surprised.  "Do we finally get a detail," pressed Samantha.  "We now the basic story but do we actually get a gender to go with it?  If you don't tell me, Mel will."

"I got a gender and a name to deal with."

"Shut up!" said Samantha, gaping.  "You got a name?"  Gwen nodded.

"Let's hear it," said Joel, poking Draco in the arm.  "Gender and name.  Come on, Draco.  Give in to the pressure."

"Its a he and his name was Harry Potter," snapped Draco, feeling very tired and dizzy.

"Success," said Samantha.  "It's about time we get a name to work with."

"Did your father's issue have to do with the homosexual thing?" asked Joel.  Draco, figuring this was a much better explanation than the real one, nodded.  "Okay.  I won't ask any more questions - Well - except one.  Can I borrow forty bucks?"

"What do you need forty bucks for?"

"I have a date tonight."

"Didn't you just get a check from Playboy?"

"I spent it on the pudding celebrating.  I already told you that."

Draco sighed, reaching into his pocket and handed over forty dollars.  "You're paying me back for that, you know.  I'm a waiter.  I live on tips and the tips aren't that good."

"You live on that small fortune you brought over with you from London.  Your tips are excess money that I like to borrow."

"No, I live on my tips.  My small fortune that I brought over from London is for things like bills and new kitchen tables.  Don't forget you still owe me for the air conditioners."

"Yeah yeah."

"You guys, I need a real job.  I need to go to college.  Hey, Gwen, can you pick up some materials for me when you go back to school?"

"Sure.  You interested in Fordham?"

"I'm interested in anything.  I don't know what I want to do but I want to do something other than being a waiter for the rest of my life.  Once my fund runs out on Joel's stupidity, I'm going to need more than tip money."

"And God knows that Joel's going to need the money, being a struggling writer and all."

"Shut up, Sam," snapped Joel, grinning.  "I'd love to stay here and chat, but I've got a bombshell to pick up.  Thanks for the loan, Draco."

"Yeah," he replied.  "I suppose we should be getting back."

"Yeah," said Samantha.  "Come on.  You can complain about Melody the whole way home."

Handing Cherish over to Draco, Samantha put an arm around her friend's shoulder and led him out of the coffee shop and into the New York evening.

*~*~*~*~*

**Loved something?  Hated something?  Tell me in a REVIEW or email me at angeldlsm00@hotmail.com**


	4. Goodbye to You

**Not JK Rowling.  Don't own Harry Potter.  Anything you recognize is hers, anything you don't is mine including the plot and Mr. Joel Montgomery.  I am making no money off this trifle of a story.**

*~*~*~*~*

Three weeks had passed for Draco, Christmas coming next week, since his rather intense fight with Melody.  At first she barely spoke to him, only giving curt hellos, goodbyes, and replies to anything he tried to talk to her about.  After a week, she got somewhat warmer so that Draco could no longer call her frigid but things were nowhere near where they had been before the big fight.  Ever since Draco had told her he had no intention of marrying her, she seemed rather distant and Draco was waiting for the day she was going to break up with him.  He had tried, tried hard in fact, to love her the way she did him but his tactics only failed.  Immense guilt was piling upon him, Draco feeling responsible for the strain between them and wondering if one day Cherish was going to hate him for ripping their family apart.

Walking out of the bathroom now free of pudding, Draco dropped on the couch and looked at Joel sitting across from him in the armchair.  An afghan was pulled over him, a box of Kleenex sitting in his lap, and Joel wouldn't be exaggerating if he were to now claim that he looked pale and pasty.  Sitting on the table next to him was a laptop, the one he had been vigorously bent over for the duration of Draco's everlasting fight with Melody as he worked on the novel Draco liked to refer to as a home away from home.  He had been keenly keeping up with Joel's progress, loving the work so far, but ever since Joel came down with a case of the flu, he had been refusing to do any writing at all.  Hanging for what was to happen was really irritating him.

"Hey, Joel," he said, toweling off the platinum locks and letting them fall in his eyes.  Ever since coming to New York, he discontinued his practice of slicking his hair back.  It reminded him too much of then.

"Hey," came out a hoarse reply that sounded nothing like Joel's voice.  Draco frowned.

"Still not feeling any better?"  Joel shook his head.  "Hey, I got a magic word for you.  Begins with 'W', ends with 'E', rhymes with light.  Guess what it is."

"White?" asked Joel, grinning.

"That does work, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," he said before going into a fit of coughs.  "I want to write but it's hard when I need to blow my nose or cough up mucus every ten seconds."

"That took you about ten seconds to say and you didn't blow your nose or cough up mucus."

"Getting technical, are we?"

"Indeed."

"You know, if Satan was as sick as he was evil, he'd feel like me," said Joel before coughing again and blowing his nose.  He threw the used tissue into a pile on the floor.

"Why are you throwing your snotty tissues all over our floor?"

"Because the trash can is too far away."

"Why don't you bring the trash can over here?"

"Because the trash can is too far away."

"I'm noticing a pattern here.  Do you want me to get it for you?"

"What's the use?  I can't move or my head feels like its going to explode.  That means that the tissue pile would still be on the floor unless you want to pick it up."

"No thank you.  I'm already going to catch your germs and keel over and die.  You need to stop spreading bacteria around the apartment.  My cute little baby daughter is going to come over here and her short six month life will end because you're going to infest her with bacteria."

"So take her somewhere.  Go Christmas shopping.  No one would hit a guy with a baby."

"They might in New York.  That's what I love about being here.  Everyone is so unpredictable."

Joel shrugged.  "Take her to sit on Santa's lap."

"And scar the child for life?  I've seen how little kids react to that."

"You know, I always thought that the small child screaming at the mall Santa thing was a result of the elves and is indirectly, and quite wrongly, placed on the Santa Claus in question.  I know those elves still scare the fuck out of me and I was one in my first year of college."

"You were an elf?"

"I needed a job."  Joel blew his nose, balled up the tissue, and threw it into the pile.  A knock came at the door and Draco crossed into the kitchen to open it.  Melody was on the other side, dressed in a business suit, and holding Cherish in her arms.  Passing her to Draco, Melody smoothed out her jacket and looked past Draco to Joel.

"She's going to get sick," said Melody.  "You probably are going to want to keep her away from Joel."

"We're two steps ahead of you," Joel said as loud as he could before going into a fit of coughs.  Grabbing the bag of Halls Spearmint cough drops, Joel unwrapped one and popped it in his mouth.  "I hate being sick."

Melody stared at him, cocking an eyebrow before turning back to Draco.  "You have all of her stuff, right?"  Draco nodded.  "If you're going to take her out, remember to put a hat on her head.  Don't keep her out too long but don't keep her in here with Joel.  He'll contaminate her and she's only little."  Her eyes teared as she looked at Cherish.  "Momma loves you, sweetie."  She kissed Cherish on the top of her head and turned to leave.  Draco moved to kiss her, but Melody ducked out of it and disappeared down the hall.

"She dissed you bad," said Joel, a small cough erupting from his chest.  "I take it things are strained."

"To say the least," he replied, shutting the door and carrying his daughter over to the playpen.  "She's been doing that for five days now.  Won't let me touch her.  It's only a matter of time before its really over for good."

"Sorry, man."

"I'll be okay.  She just hasn't been the same since I told her I couldn't marry her."

Joel nodded.  "Well it's understandable.  Neither you nor Mel deserves to be in a marriage where there isn't consummate love.  Man, this Harry must've been one hell of a guy."

"He was," whispered Draco, wrapping his arms around his torso.  "You know, I think I am going to do some last minute Christmas shopping.  Get both my problems with Melody and Harry off my mind."

"Sounds good.  Leave me here to cough and sputter and spit up mucus on my own."

Draco scrunched up his nose.  "Pleasant.  I'll do that."  Wrapping Cherish in her winter clothes and making sure he put a hat on her head, Draco carried his daughter and stroller down to the elevator and set out for a day of shopping.

Hours later after much shopping, Draco returned back to his apartment with Cherish and multiple bags of gifts only to find that Joel hadn't moved since he left.  Taking pity on his roommate, Draco made chicken soup for lunch after feeding Cherish her bottle.  When he laid down his daughter in her crib for a nap, Draco changed into black dress pants and a grey sweater, preparing for work.  Walking back into the living room, he sat down on the couch again to see Joel with his laptop in front of him, clicking away at the keys.

"Minor writer's block overcome?" asked Draco.

"Kind of," he said and Draco winced at how much worse his voice was getting.  "Just doing a little revising."

"At least you're doing something."  Checking the clock, he noticed that it was three o'clock and Melody usually came back at two-thirty to take Cherish over to her place.  He had to be at work at three-thirty and Draco was not only the punctual type, but he liked to be early for everything, even if it was work.  "Shouldn't Melody be here by now?"

Also checking the clock, Joel nodded.  "Maybe she got held up.  Why don't you go check with Sam.  She should be home by now.  She had the day off.  If Mel isn't there, I'm sure Sam will take care of Cher for you."

"Don't call my daughter Cher," he said, retreating into the bedroom.  "Hey, babe."  Cherish smiled back at him and went into a chorus of baby babble.  Lifting her from her crib, he gathered her diaper bag and walked into the living room.  "You want to go see your Aunt Sam?  Of course you do."  Draco could hear Joel snickering as he shut the door behind him and went across the hall.

Knocking once, Draco waited and then the door opened, Samantha standing in the doorway.  "Can I help you?"

"Mel's not back yet and I need to go to work."  Shrugging, Samantha nodded and stepped back to allow Draco in.  "She didn't call or anything, did she?"

"Nope," said Samantha, popping her gum.  "Why can't you leave Cher with Joel?"

Draco scowled at the name.  "I have asked you repeatedly not to call my daughter that.  I can't leave her with Joel because Joel is in there hacking his head off and dying from whatever virus grabbed him and won't let go.  Can you please watch her until Mel gets back?"

"Sure.  I love Cher," she said, glancing briefly at Draco with a smirk, before taking Cherish out of his arms and walking over to the couch.  "I do love you, Cher, don't I?  Yes."  Draco rolled his eyes as Samantha continued to talk in cutesy voices to Cherish.

"I'm going to go, then."

"See ya," she called and Draco tossed on glance back to his daughter before walking out the door and heading for the elevator.

The walk to the coffee shop was anything but relaxing, thoughts of Melody and Harry still battling in his head.  As much as he wanted Melody to win, for the majority of him to tell his Harry thoughts to sod off and go away, he continuously found himself in a losing battle.  Draco cursed himself.  He had been having a wonderful time in New York and considering the circumstances, he was doing a relatively good job of not thinking about Hogwarts and the good old days.  Now between the problems with Melody and Joel's new novel, Draco couldn't stop thinking about it and twice he had caught himself heading for his closet, sole intention being to retrieve his wand.  He couldn't do that, not after the last time he had retrieved his wand and almost decided to use it.

A little ding could be heard over the door as Draco walked in to see an impressive line of customers, all waiting for what he presumed was their double frothy mocha latte or whatever it was that these people ordered.  After working here for two years, Draco still couldn't quite grasp the words.  There were too many names and Draco had told Joel on one that more occasion that he thought Americans drank too much coffee.  Gwen found this to be funny, Draco, however, claimed that it didn't matter if he knew the names offhand as long as he knew what to make when someone said a name to him.  Gwen, reluctantly, had agreed with him.

"Need some help?" Draco asked, pulling on his apron as he slid behind the counter and punched in.

"Could you?" she replied, hurriedly, and Draco started taking orders.

After beating the rush, hours had passed with both Gwen and Draco constantly on the go.  They liked to refer to this time of day as the post-work caffeine fix before heading home through rush hour traffic and thus completing a day of commute.  Draco loved that time of day, also loving working in the morning when the line was horrendous, because he preferred to be kept occupied, especially in recent weeks.  Sighing, Draco leaned against the counter and dropped his chin in his palm.

"I hate coffee," spit out Gwen, leaning next to him and bumping his shoulder with hers.  "I hate that I need coffee to give me a jump start in the morning when I have to look at it all day in here.  I want people to stop drinking coffee."

"The day Americans stop drinking coffee is the day the British are polite," said Draco, shoving her aside.  "You were crowding my space, you insufferable prat."

Gwen grinned at him and let out a soft chuckle.  "You have got to be the most fun person I've ever worked with," she mused.  "Of course, I think this is the best job I've ever had so that also goes into factoring."

"This is the only job I've ever had."

"You didn't work back in England?"

"Gods, no.  A Malfoy actually work?  My father would die of shock if he could see me now, waiting on people like a common servant."

"What do you mean?  Was your father really like that?  All rich and stuck up?"

"My family was wealthy.  We lived in this huge manor and had many servants.  Though I don't like to admit it, I was a bit of a spoiled child."  Draco paused, laughing.  "That was a total lie.  I was rottenly spoiled."

Gwen laughed.  "I can't imagine you being spoiled in the least."

"Believe it.  If my school would have tallied up everything I ever said, I imagine I would be most famous for saying 'Wait until my father hears about this.'  I ran to my father with all my problems.  I'm surprised that Harry ever cared for me.  I wasn't very good to him at all."

Gwen grinned.  Draco rarely talked about his past and no one pressed him about it.  It was nice for him to finally open up a bit.  "What do you mean?"

"Harry was pretty well known back at school and I have to admit that I was incredibly jealous.  I offered my friendship to him the day I met him on the train to our school, it was a boarding school, and he turned me down.  Probably had a bit to do with me offending a friend of his, ruddy Weasley prat."

Laughing, Gwen said, "I take it you didn't get along with his friends."

"I didn't really get along with anyone," Draco said with a laugh.  "I told you, I was spoiled and I hid behind my father's name.  My father is pretty respectable back home.  The Malfoy name is one that commands respect.  I took full advantage of it."

"So much about you that we don't know."

"Indeed," Draco muttered under his breath.

"Harry been on your mind a lot lately?"

Draco shrugged, nodding.  "Yeah.  Melody, too.  I know she's going to break up with me, I just don't know when.  And I feel so guilty thinking about Harry while Mel and I are still together."

Spending most of the time until closing trying to make Draco feel better, Gwen brought up anything she could think of from music to movies to politics to get Draco's mind off of Harry and Melody.  Draco was grateful for the attempt and when closing time approached, his spirits were somewhat higher.  He walked back to the apartment feeling better than he had when he left and he told himself that everything was going to be okay as he entered the elevator.

Walking down the hall to apartment 1512, Draco tried the doorknob before searching for his key and he was glad to see that it was opened.  He headed in, hung his coat on the hook, and turned around to see Samantha sitting on the couch and Joel bent over his laptop, madly pounding away at the keys.

"I just wanted to tell you that Melody didn't come back," said Samantha.  "I brought Cher over about ten minutes ago and she's sleeping in her crib."

"No one has heard from Mel?"  Both Samantha and Joel shook their heads.  "Okay."

Samantha smiled at him, squeezed Draco's shoulder, and wished them both a goodnight before heading back to her apartment.  Joel closed his laptop and put it aside.

"Come do something with me," he croaked out.

"What?"

"There's this asshole that lives in the building next door.  His bedroom window is right across from mine and he's always throwing his trash out the window and hitting my glass."

"And?"

"I want to stick gum on his window."

"You really are just a simple creature."

"Come on.  Do this with me.  It'll get your mind off the missing Melody ordeal, which I'm sure is nothing to worry about."

Draco sighed.  "Fine.  How do you propose we do this?"

"Well," he said, stumbling out of his chair and making his way to the counter.  Joel grabbed a package of straws and a roll of scotch tape, handing them to Draco.  "I say that we tape the straws together so that we can reach the window.  Then we'll chew up the gum, stick it on the straw, and stick the straw to his window."

"How much gum are we using?"

Joel revealed a small brown paper lunch bag filled with sticks of gum.  "However much we decide looks good."

Shrugging, Draco grabbed the gum and, with the straws and tape, walked over to the couch to being making his straw gum sticking device.  Joel sat across from him, complaining in the hoarse voice about the various items of garbage his neighbor had gotten on Joel's window.  These things included carrot peels, apple shavings, and small globs of ice cream.  There was even something that Joel presumed to be sperm but, not liking the idea of someone's sperm being on his window, Joel and Draco had come up with new ideas of what it could be.

By the time Draco had finished the straw device, Joel already pulled himself into the bedroom, dressed in sweats, and opened the window.  They started chewing gum, sticking wads on the end of the straw, and shoving out of the window to the other window.  The first piece proved to be difficult but after some practice, it only took them one try to the get the gum wad on the window.  Draco had taken about making a picture with the gum of a sun shining down on a flower.  Joel thought it was funny.  Draco was just bored.

As they stuck the thirty-second piece on the window, the sound of their door shutting was heard and they put down the straw device and walked into the living room.  Samantha was standing in front of the door, cordless phone in one hand as she pounded it into the other.

"What were you two doing?"

"Sticking gum on the garbage guy's window," replied Joel.  Samantha nodded.

"I see.  Um - Draco, I just got a phone call about Mel."

Draco's normally pale face went even paler.  "What happened?  Is she hurt?"

"She's gone, Draco," she said.

"Gone as in dead or gone as in not here."

"Oh!  No, she isn't dead.  She's just. . ."

"Not here?" Joel supplemented.

"Where is she?  Who called?"

"Melody called.  She's in Nevada."

"What's in Nevada?" said Joel.

"Las Vegas," both Draco and Samantha said.

"What did she say?" said Draco.

Samantha paused.  "I wish I didn't have to be the one to do this.  She - she isn't coming back.  She told me to tell you that she loves you and wishes you could have been together but since you didn't love her the way she loved you - well, she's just gone.  She said to tell you that she wasn't coming back and that you aren't to look for her.  She doesn't want to be found.  Mel said to tell you that she never wants to see you or Cherish again.  She said it hurts her too much to look at Cherish when she knows that she's yours and you'll never love Melody like she loves you.  I'm sorry, Draco."

Crossing the room, Samantha wrapped a tentative arm around Draco.  He tried to pull away, shuddered, and fell into her arms.  Draco tried to make sense of his thoughts, but nothing was fitting together.  All he could understand was that Melody was gone and he was left alone to raise their six month old daughter.  The tears he had been baiting behind floodgates came rushing out, soaking Samantha's shoulder, and he buried himself into her.  What exactly had he gotten himself into?

*~*~*~*~*

**Loved something?  Hated something?  Tell me in a REVIEW or email me at angeldlsm00@hotmail.com**


	5. Catching Up

**For those who had positive comments:  You are appreciated and this next chapter is for you.  Not exactly the moment you've all been waiting for but indeed one step closer.**

**For those with negative comments or who used the words: unbelievable, unrealistic, etc:   This story has no hidden meaning.  It's a serious!fic meets crack!fic if there ever was one.  There is no underlying story and there is no moral behind it.  It was merely meant to entertain and by reading and analyzing it, producing things that just aren't feasible, you've taken away from that.  My purpose was to provoke a few smiles and if I was _really lucky, maybe even a few laughs.  Many of the things are humorous (that being why it's in the humor category) and if they're unrealistic to you, you really should spend a day with me and my friend Tony.   A good deal (gum-sticking device thanks to my cousin, Tim; the table leg; demon rat) are things that have happened to me, things that I do regularly (soup with a fork) or would do if I could get away with it (pudding).  By reading into it, not taking it for face value, you've done the ultimate evil when it comes to Harry Potter:  You're ruining the magic.  I ask you to take the story for what it is in it's cracked out form.  If you __still don't like it, stop reading it.  You've come too far already and your comments are unappreciated.  If you think you can do it better, go write your own damn story.  I've been nice but I assure you that I can get nasty.  I have a history of arson and a box full of matches; do not tempt me._**

**Not JK Rowling.  I don't own Harry Potter or the entire world within. Anything you recognize would belong to her.  Anything you don't would belong to me, including the crack!plot of this trifle of a story.  I am (obviously) making no money off this though if you really want to sue me, I've got $10.00.  Good day.**

*~*~*~*~*

_Eight Years Later_

Taking off his glasses and placing them on the desk before him, Harry Potter rubbed at his eyes trying to make the burning sensation go away.  Sitting on the desk was a piece of parchment covered in words and numbers, an inventory sheet for the bookstore he co-owned in Hogsmeade, the village he lived in.  Also living in Hogsmeade were the co-owners of the bookstore, Hermione and Ron Weasley, his best friends from when he went to school at Hogwarts.

He looked at the clock and saw the red numbers glowing back at him indicating that it was fourteen minutes after midnight.  Harry's body seemed to be telling him that it was very late and that he should get to sleep but he had a headache and he doubted if he would get to sleep even if he did lay down in his bed.  Late at night, Harry liked to keep busy until he was about ready to pass out from a sleep deprivation so that he couldn't have time to think.  Thinking for Harry was never good because thinking always led back to Hogwarts and _him.  Ten years had passed since then and Harry and friends had gone through many changes over the years._

For one, Ron Weasley and the former Hermione Granger had gotten married only a year after leaving the school.  They now had three adorable children that Harry often got to take care of when his two best friends decided that they needed to get away for an evening.  Harper was nine, Eleanor was eight, and the youngest, Angela, was six.  They were good kids and Harry loved each of them as if they were his own.  In fact, they were staying at Harry's that very night as he sat at his desk, rubbing his burning eyes, and trying to focus on the numbers instead of his thoughts.

When they graduated, Ron went on to work at the Ministry of Magic with his father in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office.  Many times before Ron had claimed that it was the most boring department of the ministry but once there, Ron found that he quite enjoyed it and the time it gave him to spend with his father on a daily basis.  Only two years ago, Ron had decided to quit work at the ministry as he and Harry wanted to start their own business.  Originally, they wanted to go for some sort of Quidditch shop, but Hermione's persistence led them to the bookshop they now owned together.

Hermione had stayed at Hogwarts after the rest of their class left as an assistant to Professor McGonagall who had been their Head of House, Gryffindor, and Transfiguration teacher.  Shortly after marrying Ron, Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, retired and Hermione was given the job.  She stilled worked at the school which was very close to Hogsmeade, a convenient arrangement so that she could balance the school and the bookshop.

Harry, however, probably went through the most changes since leaving Hogwarts.  During his years at school, Harry had played the position of Seeker on his house Quidditch team and when he graduated, he went on to play Quidditch for England.  That lasted two years until he was contacted by his old headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, who notified him that the Dark Lord Voldemort was making appearances in London.  Many muggles were being tortured, killed, and there were even more disappearances.  Quitting the Quidditch team, Harry had gone to work at the ministry as an Unspeakable.

Voldemort did, indeed, resurface and Harry faced him down for the first time since the Triwizard tournament in his fourth year.  After he got his body back, Voldemort had disappeared and most in the wizarding world reckoned that he was laying low, regaining power, and waiting for the right time to attack.  Two years after graduating, Harry discovered that it was exactly what he had been doing.  Voldemort had been defeated and many of his followers, Death Eaters, were apprehended and stuck in Azkaban.

One of the Death Eaters that was apprehended just after Voldemort's defeat was Lucius Malfoy, a well respected wizard if not for his name, then at least for his power.  That had been a triumphant catch for Harry and before he went in, Lucius had been questioned for the names of other Death Eaters.  He refused to tell and the ministry turned the subject to Draco, Lucius's only son.  Harry had gotten the shock of his life when Lucius, practically seething, told the ministry that Draco was not a Death Eater, nor did he know where his even was.  As his story went, Draco had refused initiation and Lucius told him to leave, disinheriting him.  He told them Draco could be anywhere because he had money; Draco had stolen the Gringotts key to his personal vault Lucius had been filling for him since he was born.  No one had seen Draco since.

The fact that no one in the entire wizarding world knew where Draco Malfoy was had unsettled Harry then and it unsettled him now.  In his seventh year, Harry had come out to his house and then the school as a bisexual.  Some of the students were okay with it, but just as many seemed to think that Harry was just as evil as Voldemort himself and he was frequently chastised for his sexual preference.  Just when things seemed like everything was awful and Harry was ready to give up hope, Draco Malfoy, his sworn enemy up until then, had come to him.  Through tears, Draco had told Harry about how he, too, was bisexual and never told anyone for fear of them reacting the same way the school was toward Harry.  They soon became friends and a few months later, became a couple.

Harry thought everything in his life was perfect whenever he was with Draco.  Colors were vivid and there was never a dull moment that clouded over Harry's life.  There were many times when Draco would complain about his father being a Death Eater, claiming that his father was too good to be licking Voldemort's shoes.  He spoke of having to become a Death Eater himself, but Harry never really took him seriously.  Harry always thought Draco was so much stronger than that.  Draco took that away from him the day before graduation, breaking up with Harry and telling him that he was, indeed, to become a Death Eater.

For two years, Harry had lived with mixed emotions of anger and yearning.  He missed Draco, but he was also mad at him for being so weak and falling into following his father's footsteps.  When Lucius changed everything by telling the ministry that Draco was not, in fact, even close to being a Death Eater, all of the anger vanished and the part of him that still missed and loved Draco increased inside him ten fold.

Despite losing Draco, Harry still dated off and on, though nothing ever seemed to stick.  He had never come close to finding someone who made him feel the way that Draco had made him feel, much less someone to settle down with to have and to hold forever.  There were many times when he thought of Draco and wondered what became of him, but Harry didn't like to ponder it too long.  The emotions were still too strong.

Only Ron and Hermione had ever known about his romance with Draco and he was happy to say there were still on hand to counsel him through.  He had left the ministry to open up the bookstore with Ron as a way of distracting himself from worrying about Draco, and if he did get caught up in his thoughts and needed a shoulder to lean on, both Ron and Hermione were always there.

"You still up, Uncle Harry?" he heard and Harry, putting his glasses back on, turned around to see Harper standing in the doorway, eyeing him.  Harper had gotten Ron's flaming red hair while his two sisters looked more like Hermione.  Harry smiled at him and motioned for Harper to come in.

"Yeah.  Just going through some invoices and checking out the inventory sheets for the store," he replied.  "How about you?  What're you doing up?"

"First I had to use the bathroom and then I couldn't fall back asleep.  I was coming to look for something to eat.  You look tired.  You should go to sleep."

"Thanks for that advice, Harper, but I'm suffering from a case of insomnia myself."

Harper cocked his head to the side and studied Harry further.  "Do you worry a lot, Uncle Harry?  My mum and dad say that you worry a lot."

"Sometimes.  You're mum and dad are just looking out for me.  They always think I'm either worrying too much or not eating enough or something."

"I know what you mean.  My mum says I don't eat enough vegetables but I don't like vegetables much.  I like chocolate."

"You are your father's child," mused Harry, thinking of Ron.  He could hardly believe it had been so long since he went to Hogwarts, things feeling like they just happened yesterday.  Harper would be starting there in two years and Harry didn't know how time had gone by so fast without him noticing.  He sighed.  "You should be getting back to bed.  You need your sleep."

"You do, too," Harper pointed out.  Harry despised nine year old kids.

"Yeah but you need it more.  You're a growing boy.  Why don't you just grab a snack and go back to sleep.  Don't worry about me.  I'm going up to bed soon, anyway."

Harper nodded, hugging Harry goodnight, and left the room for what Harry hoped would be the kitchen and then the guest room.  He sat for ten more minutes staring at the invoice in front of him before filing it away with a flick of his wand and left the room for bed.

~*~

"We're back!" called Hermione and Harry watched from his kitchen table as the three Weasley children threw themselves into the open arms of their parents.  Hermione was covering their faces with kisses and Ron left the scene to wander into the kitchen and sit opposite Harry.

"How were my little monsters?" asked Ron and Harry grinned.

"Oh they were just awful.  We had to put a body binding charm on Eleanor because she was so bad."

"Not my Ellie!" said Ron, laughing.  "Was Angie a pain?  Our usual babysitters think Angie's a pain."

"Angela was a perfect little lady.  There were no problems."

"I wish they'd be like that when they're at home," mused Ron.  Harry laughed.

"But if they were never bad, you would never be able to truly appreciate it when they're good."

"It sounds awful but I'll suffer through it."

"Suffer through what?" asked Hermione, coming into the kitchen to join them.

"Nothing.  Harry says the kids were good."

"Oh sure.  They'll behave for Harry but not for us."

"That's what I said."

"Its part of your job description as parents," said Harry.  "I looked it up.  So how was your evening?"

"Divine," said Hermione, tossing her silky brown hair.  "It was nice to have a free night all to ourselves."

"Speaking of free nights," Ron said and Hermione grinned at him.  Harry didn't like that grin.  "Harry, we thought that you, well, need to get away."

"What gave you that impression?"

"What did you do last night?" asked Hermione.  Harry bit his bottom lip.

"Nothing."

"Liar," Ron hissed at him.  "What did you do?"

Harry groaned.  "I went over invoices."

"That's why you need to get away," said Hermione.  "You're drowning yourself in your work again and it isn't healthy for you, Harry.  I know that with June coming, you're probably beating yourself up over it being ten years since you and Draco broke up, but Harry, you need to get over it.  It _has been ten years."_

"What exactly are you proposing here?" asked Harry, wishing they would get to the point and not especially liking where this conversation was leading.

"Well-" started Hermione.

"We thought-" said Ron, "well, something of a holiday.  Hermione already talked to Albus and he said he'd be more than happy to give her the last month off if it meant getting you out of Hogsmeade."

"We can shut down the bookstore for the rest of May and June," added Hermione.  "It can be the three of us, Harper, Ellie, and Angie.  I'd like to take the kids somewhere and you need to get out and do something.  Forget about work for awhile and have some fun."

"I appreciate the thought-"

"No, Harry, you listen.  I don't think you're understanding us," said Hermione.  "We're taking you whether you want to go or not.  You can appreciate the thought while we're on holiday."

"So I have no choice."

"Exactly.  Harry, we're doing this for your own good.  I promise you, you'll thank us for this."

Harry rubbed at his eyes behind his glasses.  "Then I suppose there's no point in arguing if you're making me go against my will.  Where exactly is this rendezvous to?"

"We have a few options.  Ron and I decided that we wanted this to be fun for the kids and you, but we also want it to be educational so we narrowed it down to three choices.  Since you're being forced to come, we thought we'd let you pick from the choices."

"Fine.  What are they and when are we leaving?"

"We're leaving next week," said Ron.  "Your three choices are France, Egypt, and New York."

"New York?" asked Harry, raising an eyebrow.  "France I get because of the art and gourmet and literature.  Egypt for the tombs and pyramids.  Why New York?"

"Well, the thing about New York is that I thought we could live muggle there," said Hermione.  "Our kids know I'm muggle-born but they've never really been in the muggle world too much except for visiting my parents.  I thought that a month in a muggle place would be educational and I didn't want to pick London because that's far too close to home."

"Hermione wanted somewhere in America so we asked Albus to suggest somewhere that would be culturally educational for the kids but you could still have fun.  Albus suggested New York City."

"He was very strange about it, too," said Hermione.  "Did you see him wink when he proposed it?"

"I did.  He keeps telling me that it would be more suitable for the children to live as muggles so that they can better understand the wizarding world.  Personally, I don't see what's so great about New York City, but then again, I've never been there."

"I have," said Hermione.  "It's huge and culturally diverse.  Maybe that's why Albus suggested it."

"We're going to New York, aren't we?" Harry interrupted them.

"It's your choice," said Ron.  "We leave next week no matter where we go."

"I'm not getting out of this, am I?"

Ron and Hermione shook their heads.  "No."

"Fine.  Since the both of you and Albus seem so keen on it, we're going to New York.  I should like to dress like a muggle again, even if it is only for a little while."

"Wonderful!" cried Hermione, jumping out of her chair, running around the table, and seizing him around the stomach.  "I promise you, you won't regret this.  Its going to be a marvelous holiday.  You just wait and see."

"You had better be right about this, Hermione," said Harry.

"Oh I am!  You'll see."

Harry tutted as she hugged him one more time and left with Ron, their three children scurrying behind them.  Sighing, Harry's stares wavered from the shut door and the empty chairs in his kitchen where Ron and Hermione had previously been sitting.  He really should have expected something like this out of them eventually, as they always did get on his case when they thought he needed to take a break.  They had, however, caught him very off-guard and now Harry would need to start getting ready because next week he was taking a month-long holiday to New York City to live as a muggle.  Oh the things his friends could rope him into.

As much as Harry would hate to admit it, he was actually very glad that Hermione and Ron had not only thought this up, but found a way to force him into going.  If they hadn't already been pressed by Dumbledore, Harry doubted that he would have taken them very seriously at all.  He really did need a vacation with the ten year anniversary coming up and what better way to spend it than with the Weasleys.  They were the only family he really had, even if they weren't blood related, because he had long ago stopped talking to his last blood relatives, the Dursleys who hated anything strange and unusual.  Harry was more strange and unusual than they could really stand.

As he was raised by the Dursleys and didn't even know he was a wizard until he was eleven years old, Harry was looking forward to be able to live as a muggle once again.  He rather missed things like television, stereos, and electricity all together.  Apparating was fine and wonderful, quite useful when one was in a jiffy and needed to get somewhere else fast, but he missed riding in automobiles.  Harry loved his broomstick almost more than any other possession (his wand held first place) but he quite missed things like airplanes.  Traveling by Floo Powder through fireplaces, while interesting, was not Harry's preferred method of travel, either.  He was looking quite forward to flying to New York and to be able to ride around on muggle transportation.

This also meant that he could dress in the clothes he found comfortable in public.  Most wizards wore robes at all times and Harry found that he rather preferred jumpers and jeans to traditional wizard wear.  He planned on acting enraged at being forced into this holiday, if only to milk Ron and Hermione for all they were worth, but a voice in the back of his head thought this was exactly what he needed.

Harry sighed, leaned back into his chair, and began to anticipate the trip to New York.

*~*~*~*~*

**Loved something?  Hated something?  Tell me in a REVIEW or email me at angeldlsm00@hotmail.com **


	6. The Diner

**One word:  enjoy.**

**Not JK Rowling.  I don't own Harry Potter or the entire world within. Anything you recognize would belong to her.  Anything you don't would belong to me, including the crack!plot of this trifle of a story.  I am (obviously) making no money off this though if you really want to sue me, I've got $10.00.  Good day.**

*~*~*~*~*

A week had come and gone, taking Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the three Weasley children away on a plane and to America.  The children and Ron had been fascinated by the airport and Hermione had to scold them repeatedly for saying things very loudly about crazy muggle inventions.  Sitting and waiting for their plane had been eventful when Harper asked why airports used words like 'terminal' and 'departed' right before you get on a plane.  He felt that it was rather morbid and scared him a great deal about getting on such a large muggle invention without magic to protect him if something were to go awry.  Getting Eleanor and Angela worked up with his inquiries, Ron and Hermione separated their children and Haper was told not to speak again until they were on the plane.

If Ron and the children had been fascinated by the hand dryers in the muggle bathrooms, they were amazed at the in-flight movies shown on the plane.  Hermione had only ever taken them to see a motion picture once before and they had been amazed then, but showing a movie on a plane was more exciting than any piece of magic could ever be.  Both Hermione and Harry found this rather cute.

Arriving in New York went about the same way the airport in London had gone but when they ended up in the city with all the traffic and people, even Harry was finding himself amazed.  He had never been to New York City before and though he had heard of what it was like, the tall buildings and arrogant, bold attitudes of the people caught him quite off-guard.  Hermione grinned at them and hailed two cabs, giving the driver the name of their Hotel and settled back as they were transported away.

They checked into the hotel two days ago and both Ron and the children were amazed by things like the elevator, television, and automatic doors.  The first day was spent adjusting and the second day was spent shopping and visiting the Empire State Building, Hermione's two daughters feeling a little overwhelmed with so many shopping choices in the city.  Now on their third day, the children wanted to go to the zoo in Central Park and Ron, Hermione, and Harry were more than willing to oblige.

After the zoo and rides, it was just after three-thirty in the afternoon on a warm May afternoon.  Children all around the city were getting out of school and Ron was making sure his children were holding hands with one of their parents for fear of losing them in the crowd.

"Let's go eat there," said Angela, pointing to what looked like a small diner across the street.  It looked very quaint and very American so everyone else agreed.

Crossing the streets at a crosswalk in a swarm of people, their small contingent separated from the rest and headed down to the diner.  A bell dinged as they walked in and presuming that no one was going to show them to their seats, Harry led them to a booth by the counter.

"Get out 'ere," a man in a business suit called to the back of the restaurant in a very heavy French accent.  "You 'ave customers."

Harry was sitting at the end next to Eleanor and Angela, who was next to the wall.  On the opposite side of the table, it was Harper by the wall, Hermione in the middle, and Ron immediately across from Harry.  Angela passed them menus from the end of the table.

"Oh gods," Harry heard Hermione whisper and she clutched at his wrist to the point where it was painful.  Looking up, Harry could see a very familiar looking blond come out from the back.  He was wearing jeans and a tight grey sweater, a black apron tied around his waist, and a notepad and pencil in hand.

"You don't have to shout at me, Francois.  I was just cleaning up in the back like you told me to."

"I feel so sorry for you.  I 'ave been so 'eartless," he replied.  "Please do wait while ze tiniest violin plays 'My 'Eart Bleeds For You.'"

"There's no need to be sarcastic and rude."  He looked away from the French man named Francios and to Harry's table, stopping with a jerk in his steps.  His eyes had gone wide and his already white knuckles were turning even whiter as he clutched the notepad in his hand.

"Do not just stand zer.  Go to your customers."

He whispered something that looked like 'I do not believe this' and swaggered over to their table.  When he moved again, different than before, everything clicked into place.  Standing at their table, he cleared his throat and opened up to a fresh page on the notepad.  Harry looked up in the hesitant and avoiding eyes of Draco Malfoy before Draco turned away.  From across the table, Hermione was looking pale, almost faint, but Ron was wearing the biggest smirk he had ever seen.

"Can I get you something to drink," mumbled Draco, pencil posed above the pad.

"_Malfoy?" Ron spit out.  "What are you doing here?"_

"Can I get you something to drink," repeated Draco, refusing to break his professional stance.

"Water, please," said Hermione, but Ron would not be abated.

"I can't believe this.  A Malfoy working in a diner.  _Serving.  A __Malfoy serving other people."_

"And you, sir?" said Draco, looking pointedly at Ron.

"Coke," he replied.  Draco made a note.  He looked to Harry.

"Water," mumbled Harry, resisting the urge to reach out and stoke the smooth, pale skin of his cheek, and Draco simply nodded, making a note and looking to the children.

"I get it," said Ron before Eleanor, Harper, or Angela had a chance to respond.  "You're pretending like you don't know us.  Fine.  _Draco," he said very pointedly, over exaggerating reading Draco's name tag._

"And the children?" Draco said, never missing a beat.

"Apple juice," said Angela.

"Same," said Eleanor, both girls looking strangely at their father.

"Milk," said Harper.

"I'll be right back with your drinks and to take you order," said Draco, turning away from their table and practically running behind the counter.  He sent the order for the drinks back.

"Zat was very eloquent, Draco," said Francois.  "Perhaps you would like to stumble over yourself some more?"

"Shut up," hissed Draco, stealing a glance at their table.  Taking a tray from behind the counter, Draco carried their drinks over to them and set them down in front of their respective owners.  "Are you ready to order or do you need more time?"

"We're ready, Draco," said Ron, looking to his children who nodded.  Ron, Hermione, and Harry had all ordered burgers but the kids had opted for grilled cheese, except for Angela who wanted a hot dog because she thought the name was funny.

As Draco was taking Harper's grilled cheese order, the bell dinged again and Harry turned around to see a young girl enter.  She had platinum blonde hair with black streaks in it, and just behind her was a tall, dark-haired man with tan skin and stubble covering his face.  Removing his sunglasses, the man stuck them in the pocket of his leather jacket and strutted over to sit next to the girl, who had already thrown her bookbag on top.  The man, but not the little girl, was receiving a glare from Francois.

Harry noticed that with the ding of the bell, Draco had also stolen a peek at the door, also glaring at the man.  He half-heartedly noted what it was that Harper was saying and headed off to the back without looking at the new customers or his table.  Hermione gripped his wrist again and he looked up to see her staring at the man as well.

"Just a few notes," she hissed.  "Ron, stop being like that to Malfoy.  Harry, are you okay?  We brought you here to get away from him and here he is."

"I'm fine," Harry lied.

"You are not.  You don't, however, look unhappy."

"I know he's alive now, don't I?  No one knew what happened to him.  Now we know he's still okay."

"But a waiter?" said Ron.  Hermione glared at him and he shut his mouth.

"Now that the essentials are out of the way, do you know who that is?" she hissed, pointing to the man sitting at the counter and drumming on it with his fingers.

"Should we?" said Harry.

"Not exactly, but that's Joel Montgomery.  He's the author of that book series about the witches and wizards.  Remember, Albus sent them to us and we've been wondering how he knew so much about the wizarding world?"

"That's him?" said Ron and Hermione nodded.

"Must you do zat?" Francois snapped at Joel.  Joel grinned.

"No, but I know it annoys you."

"Why do you insist on coming 'ere every day?"

Joel shrugged.  "Because you don't like me?  Besides, I have a job to do."

"I am sure Cherish is capable of walking 'erself 'ere after school, oui?"

"I am," the girl named Cherish protested, "but Daddy is far too overprotective.  Uncle Joel, can't you talk to him?"

Joel laughed.  "Yeah, okay.  Let's do that.  I'm sure he'll listen.  Where did he get to, anyway?"

Just as Joel uttered his last statement, Draco came out of the back and walked behind the counter, an uneasy eye on Harry's table.

"Would you please ask your friend to leave my establishment?" Francois snapped at Draco.

"Joel," he said, leaning on the counter and rubbing his temples, "don't you have somewhere to be?"

"Of course.  Right here with you.  It's Friday, you know?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Friday is your weekly 'you need a life' chat," said Cherish.  Draco stared at her.  "What?"

"Do your homework," he snapped, now rubbing at his eyes.  Cherish shrugged and opened up a textbook.

"Man, what's wrong with you?" said Joel.  "You seem even more cranky than you usually are on a Friday afternoon."

"Nothing is wrong.  I just need some quiet and your incessant racket is hurting my head."

"Dude, Draco.  Relax.  I'm only here to bother you with Friday's discussion.  What time do you get off?"

"Five.  I always get off at five.  I've been getting off at five for three years now.  I don't know why you even ask anymore."

"Well what if it changed one day?"

"Then I would tell you.  Could you please just leave?  You're making this harder on me than it already is."

"Making what harder?"  Draco glared.  "Nevermind.  What are you doing tonight?"

"I don't know.  Going home.  Eating dinner.  Watching television.  Taking a large dose of sleeping pills."

"Draco," whined Joel, "you need to get out.  Sam and I would be happy to watch Cher.  She could play with Devin.  What happened to the guy that wanted to do something with his life?  You've been a waiter for ten years now.  You don't talk to anyone but me, Sam, and Gwen anymore.  What happened to you?"

"I got burned," replied Draco.

"You can't be scared to get hurt again.  Being scared of getting hurt only makes you miss out on all the good stuff you could be doing.  Ever since Mel left you're like a fifty year old man.  You're too old to party but too young to die."

"Are you suggesting that I die?"

"No, I'm flat out telling you to go out and make nice.  Otherwise, you're already dead.  You need to go out, Draco.  You need to socialize with people again and stop spending all of your time at home claiming that Cherish needs you."

"I'm not going out, Joel.  I haven't gone out in a very long time.  What makes you think I'm going to tonight?"

"Because you need to make a friend.  You need to get laid.  Find some woman, hell find some man, and get some.  I don't care what you're into.  Inanimate objects.  Animals.  I don't care.  Just get yourself some fuzzy handcuffs and get laid.  How long has it been since you've had sex?"

"Joel," Draco hissed, "I do not want to discuss this in front of my daughter."

"Daddy, I'm eight, not four," said Cherish.  "I know what Francois is really saying when he yells at Uncle Joel in French.  I know about sex, penises, vaginas, and the whole gang.  I know that you're really unhappy a lot of the time and I know that you need to stop using me as you excuse.  On a brighter note, I got an A on my spelling test today."

"Yeah?" asked Draco.  She nodded.  "Do you know how to spell 'quiet'?"  She nodded again.  "Then take a hint."

"Daddy, don't be so melodramatic," said Cherish, rolling her eyes.

"See, even your daughter thinks you need to get laid.  Seriously.  How long has it been?  Was it Melody because if it was, I'd even do you just because you need it that badly.  However, I'd prefer that you find someone else.  I am married with two kids.  Affairs break up families."

Draco rolled his eyes, and looked past Joel to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione all staring at them, obviously overhearing the entire conversation.  Draco wasn't sure if he wanted to shoot Joel or himself, and he was just about to make a decision when a bell dinged and Draco had to carry the food to Harry's table.

"Oh man, Draco," said Joel, once Draco had served them and came back behind the counter, "if you treat all your customers like that, I can see why you're getting stiffed on tips.  You haven't hit anyone lately, have you?"

"Hit anyone?" asked Cherish.

"Yeah.  Your dad used to work at this coffee shop when you were really little but he got fired for hitting one of the customers."

"I fucking hate coffee," grumbled Draco.  "I hate those mocha latte vanilla frappuccino-"

"We know, Draco," said Joel.  "Your dad has a real fiery hate for fancy coffee."

"It comes from years of serving it to stuck up stock brokers."

"I see," said Cherish, arching an eyebrow.  "You're very strange, Daddy, but not as strange as Uncle Joel."

"Let us hope that it never gets to that point."

"Now Draco," scolded Joel, "I'm not that bad.  You're just sour because its Friday and we're having the weekly 'your sex drive has gone into a coma' conversation."

"No, you're having the conversation and I'm just retaliating."

"What is you problem today?" snapped Joel, throwing his hands up in the air.  "I surrender.  Come on.  I've known you for ten years now.  Tell me.  Did you hear from Melody?"

Cherish dropped her pencil.  "No, I didn't hear from Melody," said Draco as Cherish picked her pencil back up.

"Of course you didn't.  Its been eight years, right?"

"Right little ray of sunshine, aren't you?"

"Sorry," mumbled Joel.  "You're just off today.  I want to know what's up."

Throwing down the rag he had been wiping the counter with, Draco snapped, "There is nothing wrong with me, okay?  I'm just having a very bad day and I don't need you coming in here reminding me of everything that's gone wrong in my life."

Joel looked at Draco and then to Cherish.  "Cher, honey, maybe you should go take a walk."

"But I'm not allowed to.  Daddy thinks I'm going to get mugged or something."

"I pity the man who tries to mug you," whispered Draco.  "You can go, babe.  Just stay nearby, okay?"

"Okay," she said, wrapping her arms around Draco's neck over the counter to give him a hug and a peck on the cheek.  "I love you."

"Love you, too, babe."

Cherish packed up her backpack and left it sitting on the counter as she left the restaurant.  Once the door was shut, Joel looked back to Draco.  "Seriously, man.  What's up?  You look like you're about to crack."

"I think I deserve to crack," sputtered Draco.  "I've had a very bad ten years and today doesn't look like its going to make my life any better."

"Shit, Draco, what happened today?" he asked but Draco just shook his head and wiped at his burning eyes.  

"Draco," said Francois, coming out of the back, "you need to go finish cleaning up.  It is a pig sty back zer."

Rolling his eyes, Draco muttered a few unkind words and disappeared through the door.

Harry picked at his cheeseburger, saying nothing.  The children were engaged in conversation but the three adults stared at each other, daring who would speak first.  Neither Harry nor Hermione was surprised when it was Ron.

"Malfoy has a daughter," he said.  "And he seems to know Joel Montgomery.  I bet that's where he got all his information about wizards and witches.  From Malfoy."

"He doesn't seem very happy, either," said Hermione, softly.  Harry continued to pick at his food.  Hermione prodded Ron in the side.  "Move."  Ron stared at her.  "I want you to switch seats with me."

Sliding out of the booth, Ron let Hermione get up before he sat back down and slid in next to Harper.  Hermione, however, walked right over to the counter and took the seat Cherish had been in next to Joel Montgomery.

"I'm sorry," she said, "but I couldn't help but notice you.  You're Joel Montgomery, aren't you?  Author of the Morgan Straker books?"

Joel nodded.  "That's me.  Are you a fan?"

"Actually I am," she replied.  "I was wondering if you'd like to join us at our table."

Taking one look at the door Draco had disappeared through, Joel seemed to consider this offer and nodded.  Standing up, he followed Hermione to the large booth closest to the counter and Hermione sat back down next to Ron.  She motioned for him to take a seat next to Harry and she noticed that Harry was shifting uncomfortably.  While she was gone, Harper, Angela, and Eleanor had moved to their own table behind them and were now coloring their placemats.

"I take it you're British," said Joel as he sat down.  Hermione blushed and nodded.  "What brings you to New York?"

"We're on a holiday.  We wanted to take a trip to somewhere the children had never been," she said, motioning to the three Weasley children in the booth behind them.

"So you know Draco?" said Ron before Hermione could say anything else.

"Yeah," answered Joel, eyes narrowing.  "Why?  Do you?"

"We went to school with him," said Hermione.  "It was quite a shock to see him working here."

"Oh," he said, looking at the staff door.  "I take it that you probably didn't get along."

"Why would you say that?" said Harry, still picking at his uneaten burger.

"Because Draco is in one of the foulest moods I've ever seen him in.  Friday afternoons are always bad for him but this is especially bad.  I'm glad I know, though.  Its starting to make sense.  Sort of."

"We did get along for a short period in our last year but we fell out of touch when we graduated," explained Hermione before Ron could screw this up.

"I guess so if you didn't know he lived in New York.  Moved here a few months after his graduation.  He doesn't talk about his past much.  I think it hurts him to think about everything not that New York's treated him much better."  Joel shrugged.  "From what I know, he hasn't been in touch with anyone who lived in England so don't be offended."

"We'll keep that in mind," said Hermione.

"So you never told me.  What are your names?"

"Oh!" cried Hermione.  "How rude of us.  I'm Hermione Weasley, and this is my husband Ron.  That's our friend, Harry Potter."

Joel thought for sure his eyes popped out of his sockets, turning to really look at Harry for the first time since sitting down.  He knew that Draco's mysterious ex was named Harry Potter, and now that the name clicked, he did look an awful lot like Draco had described him.  There was the black hair, the green eyes, and the lightening bolt shaped scar on his forehead.  Nothing, indeed.  If this is what Draco called nothing, Joel wanted to know what Draco called something.  Before he had a chance to say anything else, the bell rang and Joel looked up to see Samantha come in.

"I thought you'd be here," she said walking over to him.

"Hey, Sam," he said, standing up just long enough to give her a quick peck on the lips.  Turning to Ron, Harry, and Hermione, he said, "This is my wife, Samantha."

"Hi," they chorused and Hermione said, "Please sit down."

Taking a seat next to Hermione, Samantha said, "So who are your friends, Joel?"

"Well, this is Hermione.  She came over and asked me to join them.  She's a fan."

"How nice," she mused, shaking Hermione's hand.

"Oddly enough, these three went to school with Draco.  Didn't even know he lived in New York.  They were pretty surprised to have him as their waiter."

"You went to school with Draco?"  They nodded.  "Well who would've thunk."

"_And that's not all.  This is Hermione's husband, Ron, and their friend, Harry Potter."_

"No!" said Samantha as Draco emerged from the back and looked like he was going to pass out upon seeing Joel and Samantha sitting with the Gryffindor trio.

Rubbing his temples, Draco walked over to their table and began clearing the plates.  Once he came back, his professional front was up again.  "Is there anything else I can get for you?"

"Dessert would be good, Malfoy," said Ron.  "Hey kids!  You want dessert?"

They looked to Hermione who normally did not allow them to have desserts.  She nodded.  "Maybe just this once."

Suddenly the children were frantic and Draco was taking the orders, avoiding Samantha and Joel's eyes upon him.  Francois strutted up next to him and glared down at Joel.

"What are you still doing 'ere?  Get out!"

"I'm a paying customer," said Joel, hurrying to pull out a five dollar bill and waving it in his face.  "See.  Draco, I want a chocolate sundae.  They're under five dollars, right?"

"Yeah," he replied, rolling his eyes as he marked it down and walked away to put in the order.

"Oh.  Five dollars.  I'm rolling in ze dough, now."

"You are a very unhappy little French man," said Joel.  "You need to make friends.  Maybe you and Draco could go out sometime and look for friends."

"Ze day I go out to look for friends is ze day Draco gets laid," said Francois.

"I heard that," called Draco from behind the counter.

"Well I said it loud," replied Francois, heading for the staff door again.

Draco returned to the table, ignoring Ron snickering next to Hermione.  "Can't you just go home?  And when did you get here?"

"Are you okay?" asked Samantha, looking up at him.  "Good God, Joel, what did you do to him?"

"I didn't do anything," he said, holding up his hands.

Draco wiped his face.  "What are you doing over here, Joel?"

"Having a chat with your old schoolmates.  Hermione, Ron, and _Harry are very nice."_

Paling, Draco looked down at a grinning Joel.  "You hate me, don't you?"

"On the contrary, I'm very fond of you."

"You leave him alone, Joel Montgomery," said Samantha, swatting his wrist.  "We should be going."

"I want my ice cream first.  Hermione, Ron, Harry, how would you like to come by my apartment when we finish dessert.  I'm sure out kids could play together and we can finish this conversation without Draco hovering over us then."

"Sure," said Ron and both men received glares from their wives.

Shaking his head, Draco headed back to the counter before returning with the ice cream.  As he left the table, heading for the staff door, Samantha caught his arm and spun Draco around.  "Joel isn't doing this to you to torture you.  He's trying to help you."

Draco nodded.  "I know."

"You want to come over tonight since we're apparently already entertaining guests?  Bring Cherish."

"I don't know, Sam-"

"We live across the hall from each other," she said.  "If you don't come over, Joel will bring him to you."  Draco didn't answer.  "Is that really him?" she finally said, softly.

"Who?"

"The ever popular Harry that you're so in love with."  Draco sighed, nodding.

"Yeah.  That's him."

"He's cute."

"I know."

Samantha paused, looking from Draco back to the table.  She saw Harry staring in their direction, eyes glazed over, and she figured that he was staring at Draco.  A small smile came over her face.

"Come by tonight.  Don't let this opportunity pass you by, and I don't want to hear any excuses about having to take care of Cherish.  There are countless diners in New York City and you're ex-boyfriend that you're still madly in love with and happens to be from an entirely different country saunters into yours.  Of all the places he could have eaten, he ended up where you work.  That isn't just a coincidence, Draco."

Draco bit his lip and shook his head.  "I'm sorry, Sam, but I just can't.  I've been burned too many times.  I hurt him too badly.  I just can't."

Turning away from Samantha, Draco headed in the opposite direction and disappeared behind the bright teal door labeled 'STAFF'.

*~*~*~*~*

**Loved something?  Hated something?  Tell me in a REVIEW or email me at angeldlsm00@hotmail.com **


	7. Confrontation

**A BIG thank you to those who are reading the story.****  For further clarification:**

**Prologue through Chapter 3 (or 4 according to ff.net) was two years after Hogwarts and Cherish was 6 months old.  In Chapter 4 (or 5 according to ff.net) when Harry comes in the picture, it is ten years after Hogwarts and Cherish is eight years old.**

**Also, Samantha and Joel were not together in the first four parts of the story.  They got together over the eight year time span that passed between chapters.  Before that, they were best friends from High School.**

**Another**** thanks to the reviewers.  If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at my email, which is listed at the bottom of this chapter.**

**Not JK Rowling.  I don't own Harry Potter or the entire world within. Anything you recognize would belong to her.  Anything you don't would belong to me, including the crack!plot of this trifle of a story.  I am (obviously) making no money off this though if you really want to sue me, I've got $10.00.  Good day.**

*~*~*~*~*

"This is the place," said Joel, turning his key in the lock and opening up the door to apartment 1513.  He turned on the lights and draped his leather jacket over the back of the chair as Ron, Hermione, Harry, and the kids walked in.  Samantha shut the door behind them all and set her purse on the counter, torn between thanking Joel and wanting to strangle him for not even having a clue.

After finishing their desserts, Joel had led the crew away from the diner leaving behind a very stressed Draco Malfoy who just wanted to go home and be left alone.  Part of Joel felt bad for this as he had left this fragile Draco with an irritated but relieved Francois and he figured they'd be lucky if both men lived past five o'clock.  On the walk, Samantha had informed Joel that Draco was not going to be coming over and Joel was now trying to concoct a clever scheme.

"So you said Draco lived right across the hall from you," said Ron, sitting on the couch and accepting the beer offered to him.

"Yeah.  I used to live over there, too, but when Sam and I got together, I moved in with her.  She needed a roommate anyway after hers bailed.  Draco and Cherish live across the hall now."

"I can't believe he has a daughter.  How old is she?"

"Eight," said Samantha.  "He absolutely adores her.  All they've really got is each other."

"If you don't mind me asking," said Harry, "what happened?"

Samantha and Joel exchanged glances, looking at Harry and still having a hard time believing that Draco's mysterious ex was sitting right in their living room.  Dropping his head, Harry avoided their gazes as he ran a hand through his disheveled black hair.

"I take it you know about my history with Draco."

Clearing her throat, Samantha said, "We know that you were together but that's really it.  Draco doesn't tell us really much of anything.  All we know is that there was a matter in a difference of opinion between his father and you, leaving him in the middle to choose sides.  We know he broke up with you, but disagreed with his father on some matter, and was disinherited.  He doesn't tell us any more than that and we don't really ask questions.  It's understood that his past remains in the past."

"We all know that he wanted to start over and then this life didn't treat him much better," said Joel.  "We've been friends with him for about ten years now.  Anything there is to know about his life in New York we know like the back of our own hands but there is very little we know about him from before."

"Indeed," said Harry.  "Well than I won't tell you anything because it's Draco's decision if he wants to tell you anything or not.  I suppose the same thing goes for what happened with his daughter."

"We tried to get him to come over here after work but he won't come," said Samantha.  "Hey, Joel, can you entertain Ron and Hermione?  Gwen should be by with Devin and Andrea soon and the kids can play together.  I want to speak to Harry privately."

"Sure.  Go out on the balcony.  We'll stay here and behave.  I'll tell them all about the wonders of cooking in bathtubs."

"You do that."  Turning to Harry, she gave him a gentle smile and said, "Follow me."

Walking to the back of the apartment, Harry and Samantha reached a glass door and turned to open up a balcony.  Stepping out onto it, Samantha leaned against the railing and looked down at the pavement below where people were walking in the middle afternoon.  Checking her watch, she sighed.

"It's just after five.  He should be home soon."

"What did you want to talk to me about?" asked Harry, walking up next to her.

"Draco, of course.  It's just that - well - he's been going through a rough time for the past eight years.  Ten years, really, and from what I understand, he was going through a rough time before he even moved to New York.  I asked him to come over here and talk to you after work but he won't because he's scared.  He's been hurt and I know he's hurt you.  He just doesn't know what to do and I think that you two need to talk."

Harry sighed.  "I do want to talk to him.  I just don't know what I would say."

"'I don't hate you' would be a nice start," she said, laughing.  "'Hello' is always a nice, simple option."

"What are you suggesting?"

"I think you should go over to his apartment and talk to him.  I don't know the circumstances of your relationship with him, what happened during it or how it ended because he won't tell us, but I see him everyday, Harry.  He still loves you more than you can imagine."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Harry, one of the main reasons he's raising that little girl of his alone is because of the way he still feels about you.  Joel and I have heard nothing for the past eight years but that he wasn't ready to date again because it's not fair to date when his heart is still far too attached to you."

"He chose his father over me," Harry said.  "When it came down to me or his father, he chose his father."

"Actually, he ended up choosing a new life all together.  All I can tell you is that he showed up at Joel's apartment with one bag and a bank account full of money.  We knew that he had just graduated a few months ago, been disinherited by his father, and was still madly in love with his ex.  It was two years until we knew your name, much less your gender, and we still hardly know anything.  When it came down to you or his father, he tried to choose his father and he ended up choosing neither."

"That was his fault."

"Oh come on, Harry.  I admit I don't know you or what happened between you and Draco, but it's been ten years.  The least you could do is see what he has to say directly from him.  See for yourself if he still loves you.  He lives right across the hall and I know he's got to be home by now. . .You still love him.  I know you do.  I can see the pain in your eyes for him when I tell you about him."

Holding his head, Harry was leaning against the railing with his elbows propped up against the metal.  There was a strong, relentless pounding in his head as he tried to make rational sense of any of his thoughts but nothing was coherent.  He released a short cough, closed his eyes, and sighed as he felt the warm spring breeze sweep across the planes of his face.

"I do still love him.  You don't ever forget someone like Draco."

"So go talk to him.  You know you want to."

"But _he doesn't."_

"Yes he does.  He's just scared.  He knows he's hurt you and he's afraid that you're going to hurt him back.  He's been burned badly over the course of ten years.  I can promise you that it hasn't been easy on him raising Cherish alone.  He loves her to death but she can be quite a handful."

"Kids are a handful all together."

"I know.  You should go see him."

Nodding, Harry said, "I will.  Right across the hall?"

"Right across the hall.  Number 1512."

"Okay."  Taking a deep breath, Harry went back through the balcony door.

----------------------

Draco threw his keys on the counter and sat down with a glass of water as Cherish slammed the door behind her.  Dropping her bookbag next to one of the chairs at the kitchen table, she disappeared into her bedroom only to reemerge ten minutes later in jean shorts and a red t-shirt after changing out of her blue plaid uniform.

"I think maybe we should move," said Draco as Cherish sat down at the table to begin her homework.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because your Uncle Joel is starting to drive me crazy."

"Daddy, he is not.  You've been saying that for years.  I don't want to move.  I like it here."

"Fine, but remember that if he drives me crazy and I can no longer take care of you, you're going to be sent to live with Joel and Samantha."

"I like Uncle Joel and Aunt Samantha.  You just don't like them because they think you need to do more and I have to admit, I agree."

"Cherish, you're supposed to be on my side.  You're _my daughter."_

"Yes, but Daddy, I'm sick of going to sleepovers and having you call me because you're worried that I'll get hurt.  All the girls at school think you're really strange.  I don't like how you aren't happy.  You don't need to go get married or anything but you could at least go out with Uncle Joel sometime.  I'd be okay."

"I don't know what makes you think I'm unhappy.  We don't need anyone else, babe.  We've got each other."

"I know, Daddy, and I do love you, but you're missing something.  What was wrong with you in at the diner today?"

"Nothing was wrong.  First Joel and now you?  What is it going to take to convince you that there wasn't anything wrong?"

"Daddy, there _was something wrong.  Usually when I come in you give me a hug and a kiss on my forehead and you ask me how school was.  Today you started talking to Uncle Joel right away.  You didn't even want to see my spelling test.  Something was wrong."_

"I'm sorry, babe.  Let me see your spelling test now."  She looked at him with uncertainty but began to search through her folders.  Draco climbed off the stool at the counter and walked over to the table to sit at the chair next to her.

"Here it is.  I got all my words right."  Cherish handed him the paper with the big, red 'A+' and '100%' on it.  "Only me and two other girls got perfect scores on it."

"Good job.  I'm very proud of you."  Putting down her test after looking over it, Draco wrapped his arms around Cherish and gave her a kiss on her forehead.  "I love you, babe.  I'm sorry about earlier today.  I was having a bad day.  I didn't mean to upset you."

"I love you, too.  You didn't upset me, I just didn't want you to be sad."

"As long as I have you, I won't be, okay?"

She nodded.  "Okay, Daddy.  Can you help me with my homework today?"

"Sure, babe.  You haven't needed help in a while.  What do you need to do?"

"I have to write a report about something in my heritage."  Draco's breath caught in his throat.  "I figured since you moved here from England you could tell me something about there."

He forced a smile.  "Yeah, I can do that.  Just let me go to the bathroom first and then we can work on this."

"Okay."  Cherish smiled as Draco disappeared into the bathroom.  Opening a notebook, she dated the page and started thinking up things to write her report about.  She was on her third one when there was a knock at the door.  Setting her pencil down, Cherish walked to the door and tugged it open.  "Can I help you?"

"Is Draco here?" said Harry, looking down at the little girl with a sense of unease.

"He's in the bathroom but you can come in and wait for him."  Cherish stepped aside and opened the door further so that Harry could enter over the threshold.  She slammed the door behind him and sat back down at the table.  He was shifting uncomfotably in their kitchen and she narrowed her eyes as she watched him.  "You were at the diner today, weren't you?"

"Yeah."

"How do you know my daddy?"

"We used to be friends."

"In England?" she asked, noticing his accent.

"Yeah."

"What's your name?"

"Harry."

"Harry Potter?"

Harry could feel his eyelids slowly drifting shut as he realized she knew.  She had to know.  Her eyes were huge, mouth agape, and waiting for an answer.  He nodded.  "Yeah.  That's me."

"Oh that's it."  Slamming down her pencil, Cherish left Harry in the kitchen and rounded the corner to the bathroom door.  "Daddy!  You better almost be done in there, you _liar!"_

The door opened and Draco stared down at his daughter.  "What _are you talking about, babe?"_

"You said that nothing happened at the diner today and you _lied."_

"What do you mean I lied?  I didn't lie."

"You did too.  You said nothing happened but Harry was at the diner today.  _Your Harry.  He was at the diner today."_

"What are you talking about, babe?"

"Don't lie to me again, Daddy.  He was.  He told me so.  He's in the kitchen right now."

"_Our kitchen?  Right __now?"_

"Yes and you're going to go talk to him."  Grabbing Draco's arm, Cherish pulled him into view and Draco's eyes locked with Harry's.  "Now you two sit down and talk like rational, mature adults.  I'm going to go over to Uncle Joel's and play with Devin.  Behave yourselves."

Staring at the now shut door, Draco muttered, "Tricky, tricky, tricky.  That little girl is too smart for her own good."

"She's adorable," said Harry, also watching the door.  "Looks like her father."

"I know.  So.  Harry."

"Draco."

"You want something to drink?"

"Yeah.  Drinks.  A drink would be good."

"Do you want apple juice, grape juice, or water?"

Harry laughed.  "You do have an eight year old in the apartment.  Grape."

Removing the grape juice from the refrigerator, Draco filled two glasses and handed one to Harry.  They both sat down opposite each other at the counter.

"We need to talk," Harry croaked out.  "I know I may have found you completely by accident but I still found you and I don't think we should waste this opportunity."

"Getting straight to the point, are you?"

"Well, yeah.  What are you doing in New York?"

"I could ask you that very same question.  I live here.  What's your excuse?"

"Ron and Hermione thought I was overworking myself so they brought me here for a holiday.  In fact, they said that _Albus suggested it and was pushing it quite strongly.  Something about living like muggles for the children's benefit."_

"That crackpot old fool.  I bet he knows I'm here."

Harry gave a short, forced laugh.  "Maybe.  Why _do you live here?"_

"What do you care?"  Draco began swirling his straw around the grape juice.

"I do care, Draco.  What happened between us happened a long time ago.  I got over the anger I felt for you then when I found out you weren't a Death Eater."

"How did you know I wasn't a Death Eater?"

"Your father said so when he was questioned before going off to Azkaban."

"My father is in Azkaban?"

Harry almost fell off his stool.  "Yeah. . .didn't you know?"

"No.  When did that happen?"

"After I defeated Voldemort."

Draco snorted.  "So you finally did it, eh?  Finally defeated the Dark Lord?"

"Yeah.  About eight years ago.  Then the Death Eaters started to get sent to Azkaban and your father was one of them.  I've been worried about you."

"What for?  I was a coward.  You should have hated me."

"I loved you, Draco.  I loved you back in school and I never wanted to break up.  In fact, I still do love you.  Nothing is ever going to change the way I feel for you."

"It would change if you knew everything that's happened to me."

"Test me."

"What?"

"You said it would change if I knew everything that's happened to you.  Test me."

"No, Harry."

"Yes, Draco.  Tell me what happened.  I want to know everything.  I'm fairly confident that I'll still love you regardless.  My love for you was never conditional.  I loved you even when I thought you were a Death Eater.  I loved you even when you were standing across from me and telling me that you thought we should see other people.  I didn't come to New York to see you but since I have, and you're conveniently right down the street from the hotel Albus recommended to us, I'm making the best out of this.  Test me, Draco.  If I decide that I don't want to love you anymore, I'll walk out that door, but if I decide that I still love you, then I'm going to kiss you and you have to work with me on rebuilding our friendship and relationship."

"What makes you think I still love you?"

"I know you do.  Just admit it."

"Gotten a little arrogant over the years, have you, Potter?"

"Only when it comes to you, Malfoy.  Admit it."

"I will admit no such thing."

"Still stubborn as ever but your eyes still betray you.  Admit it."

"Fine, Potter.  I'm still in love with you.  Are you happy?"

"Ecstatic.  Now tell me what's happened to you.  I want to know."

Draco sighed.  "Fine."

"Do we have a deal?"

"Yes, we have a deal."

"Good, now explain why you're living as a muggle in New York."

"When I broke up with you, I really did think I was going to become a Death Eater.  I hated breaking up with you and it practically killed me that you weren't there for me anymore.  When my father confronted me about my initiation - I don't know.  I just couldn't do it.  I left the house with my wand and my Gringotts key.  After exchanging my money for muggle money and getting my affairs in order, I decided that I wanted to get out of England and away from my father forever."

"Why didn't you come see me?  You could have come to me."

"I was _scared, Harry.  I just broke up with you and I was embarrassed.  I thought that you hated me and that it was too late to go back to you.  The only option I really saw in front of me was to start over so I decided to go to New York.  When I got here, I got a place to stay with Joel and I got a job.  I decided not to use magic again because that was part of my old life so I wrapped up my wand and I hide it in a loose floorboard under my closet.  I couldn't bear to snap it in half but I never use it."_

"So you just figured that by leaving magic behind, you were starting this new life without it where things could be better and you wouldn't have all that baggage of being a Malfoy to carry around."

"Exactly.  No one here knew who I was or knew my father.  No one heard the name 'Malfoy' and immediately cowered.  Well, Joel talked me into going out with this girl Melody that lived across the hall.  I got her pregnant, hence Cherish, but it was too soon for me.  Mel wanted to get married but I was still too much in love with you.  I didn't love Mel and after a rather intense fight, I told her that I wasn't ever going to marry her.  A few weeks later, she left me with Cherish to go to work.  She's expected back any minute now."

Draco sighed, closing his eyes, but they were only shut momentarily because they popped right open again as he felt a pair of soft lips press against his.

"I said I'd kiss you if I still loved you," explained Harry.

"But -"

"Your daughter's name is Cherish.  That's so sweet."

"Yeah.  I - I picked it. She wanted something stupid like 'Kiara'."

"I'm sorry, Draco."

"You don't need to be.  Cherish and I are fine on our own."

"How old was Cherish when Melody left?"

"Six months."

Harry's jaw dropped.  "So you've been raising her alone for almost eight years now?"

"Yes, I have.  We're perfectly fine.  We don't need pity."

"I'm not pitying you, but I still do love you."

"You never give up, Harry, do you?"

"Nope."

"Look, I have an eight year old daughter.  I love her so much.  I don't know how Mel could have ever turned her back on Cherish.  I can't even comprehend how much I love my little girl.  She's wonderful but I'm a mess.  I've made nothing out of my life.  I don't know what you think you're going to find by coming back into my life, Harry, but I think we're beyond repair."

"No we aren't.  So you've had a bad eight years.  I've been miserable without you and if what I hear is true, you've been miserable without me.  Give us another chance.  Don't you want to?"

"I - do want to.  Let me talk to Cherish about it first.  I don't - I haven't been dating in a really long time.  I'm not doing anything without checking to see how she feels about it first."

"That's fair, but I want you to know that I'm not going to give up on us again.  It's been ten years and I still can't get you out of my head.  That means something to me."

"I know what you mean.  I love you, Harry."

"I love you, Draco."

With an open exchange of love, they sealed the promise of rebuilding, if only a friendship, with a kiss.

*~*~*~*~*

**Loved something?  Hated something?  Tell me in a REVIEW or email me at angeldlsm00@hotmail.com **


	8. I Am A Wizard

**I can't believe I'm up to 134 Reviews already.  *jaw drops*  Thank you for giving me that many reviews.  It is truly more than I deserve.  I never expected this story to gain that much popularity.**

**El:  I'm rather fond of Cherish as well.  I'm glad you found the update.**

**Fyre**** Eye:  I hope this update is up to caliber and don't worry. . .they will.  *winks***

**Jade:  Cherish _is a smart ass, I know.  Like father, like daughter._**

**Mike:  Thank you for giving me my sense back.  *hugs***

**Koneko**** Tenshi:  *Huggles back***

**Sunfreak:  I believe some angst comes back.  I hope.  *shrugs*  Either way, there's a bit of fluff as well.**

**Taryn:  I honestly hope I didn't make you die.  My update is here.  J**

**Temptress:  Of course Cherish will agree.  Why not?**

**Evil Laughter:  Yeah.  I got flames but it's all good.  And you aren't the only one who is in love with Joel.**

**To everyone else who reviewed, read, or put me on your favorites list, thank you.  Really.  I'm overwhelmed.**

**Not JK Rowling.  I don't own Harry Potter or the entire world within. Anything you recognize would belong to her.  Anything you don't would belong to me, including the crack!plot of this trifle of a story.  I am (obviously) making no money off this though if you really want to sue me, I've got $10.00.  Good day.**

*~*~*~*~*

"So we're going to try and work things out between us if your daughter has no objections?" said Harry, circling the rim of his glass with his index finger.  He heard Draco sigh and he stole an upward glance to see Draco also staring down into his juice.

"Yeah.  I guess so.  I'm not going to promise you anything, Harry.  I don't expect this to have a happy ending and you shouldn't either."

"That's what you said the first time, Malfoy.  Stop being so scared of a good thing."

"You _have gotten demanding.  Perhaps the Voldemort thing went to your head.  All the Potter worship seems to have inflated your ego."_

"It was bound to have an impact on me eventually.  When you've got people staring at the blatant blemish of an everlasting reminder on your forehead everywhere you go, it tends to become inevitable.  Look, Draco, there is a good thing between us and it isn't going to go away just because you don't want it to be there."

"I never said I didn't want it to be there."

"Well you sure do act like it."

"I've gone through a lot in the past ten years, Harry.  I'm not the same person you fell in love with."

"Yes you are.  You're still Draco Malfoy, there's just more to you.  You've evolved.  I have too.  It's expected.  I wouldn't want you to be the same incorrigable git you were when we were back at Hogwarts.  Come on, Draco.  Let me love you.  Just give us a chance and maybe, just maybe, we will have a happy ending and that friend Joel of yours can stop bothering you about getting laid."

"You heard."

"It was hard not to."

"Yes, Joel has a very large mouth."

"Please give this a chance, Draco.  If you don't give it a chance then there's no point in even trying."

His sigh was heavy as he avoided Harry's eyes.  "It's just very had for me to get close to anyone again.  I always seem to hurt everyone I come even remotely close in contact with."

"I'm a big boy, Draco.  I can take care of myself.  Don't spare me a minor injury when we could have something great."

"If Cherish is cool with it, I won't.  I somehow don't think Joel, Sam, or Cherish would let me get away with letting you walk out of my life a second time.  I wouldn't ever forgive myself and they all know it."

"Your friends are just looking out for you.  They have very good intentions."

"The road to pudding is paved with good intentions."

"What?"

"Long story involving Joel and a lot of instant pudding.  One of the many marvels that comes from living with Joel Montgomery."

"Part of me fears things working between us and having to see a lot more of Joel."

"It should scare you.  I've been around him for ten years.  I can vouch from personal experience that its a scary place to be for so long."

"Understood.  So you're going to talk to Cherish.  She's adorable but I'm sure you know that."

"I do."

"She's got that platinum trademark Malfoy hair.  Well, except for those black highlights."

Draco's face scrunched up at the mention of the black streaks that occupied Cherish's hair.  "Yeah.  That was all Samantha.  She somehow convinced Cherish that it would be a good idea to put black streaks in her hair.  I believe she said that it was too blonde and needed some sprucing up."

"And you hate that."

"Oh yeah," he said, nodding.  "Have you seen it?  You don't mess with hair that platinum.  She has black streaks in Malfoy hair."

"I think it looks good.  Rather modern."

"Fine.  Take their side."

Harry snorted.  "Oh relax, Draco.  It's just hair.  Go talk to your daughter and find out if I can kiss you without feeling guilty, like I'm pushing myself onto you."

Sighing, Draco climbed off of the stool and swaggered to the door.  He disappeared into the hallway, shutting the door to 1512 behind him and crossing the hall to knock once and enter Joel's apartment.  Samantha and Hermione were seated just inside the door at the kitchen table while Joel and Ron were on the couch.  With wild gesticulations, Joel was waving his hands about in the air and Draco presumed this had something to do with a story.  Stopping mid-leap, Joel paused and stared at Draco's lingering prescence in the doorway.  He wished he could sink down into the floor to avoid the stares of old friends mingled with new ones but he tried to be nonchalant as he glanced around for any sign of his eight-year-old daughter.

"Don't you know how to knock?" said Joel, dropping back into the couch next to Ron.

"Hi there, Malfoy," said Ron through snickers.  Draco suddenly was reminded of why he truly hated the Weasley prat.

"Ron," hissed Hermione.  "Hi, Draco."

"Er. . .hey.  I've simply come to collect my daughter."

"Cher's with Devin," explained Samantha.  "I think they're in Dev's room with Harper and Ellie."

"She told us you were coerced into talking with Harry," said Joel and Draco didn't miss Ron's smirk as he crossed the apartment to Devin's bedroom door.  "How did it go?"

"Shut up, Joel," said Draco, making it a point to send a chilling glare in Ron's general direction.  He knocked once on the door, paused, and then said, "Cherish, love, I suggest you come out here before I come in and retrieve you by force."

"Am I grounded?" came a voice through the door.  Draco sniggered.

"No but I do need to talk to you.  Would you please come out here?"

"Am I going to receive disciplinary action of any kind?"

"Only if you don't come out here right this instant."

The door cracked open and Cherish stuck her head through to see Draco staring down at her.  A big grin spread across her face as she inched out of the room and gently shut the door behind her.  "Hey, Daddy.  What's up?"

"We need to have a discussion.  I suggest you follow me."

"Yes, Daddy," she muttered, throwing a desperate look to Joel and Samantha as she inched along behind Draco.  "If I don't come back, make sure Chipper gets fed, okay?"

Joel snickered as Draco turned around to glare down at Cherish.  "Your hamster will survive, babe.  There will be no murders today."

"If you get in a lot of trouble, I'll make it up to you," said Joel.  "We'll go to China Town and I'll teach you some new Japanese phrases.  We'll finish off our collection of fast food memorabilia by finally stealing the tray from McDonald's.  I'm sure we could make a quick getaway.  There's always the option of visiting Francois."

"Thanks, Uncle Joel," she said as Draco opened the door.  Sending one last desperate glance to Samantha and Joel, Cherish slipped under Draco's arm as he held the door for her and disappeared into the hallway.

"You will be doing no such thing," snapped Draco at Joel, "and Weasley, wipe that smirk off your face.  I'm sure you're thoroughly enjoying seeing the great Draco Malfoy after he's been ruined and fallen from grace but Joel has still got my back even if he is your new best friend and I promise you that he would make your life miserable."

"I would.  Isn't Draco cute when he starts to act like you've shoved a very large stick up his ass?"  Ron snickered causing Hermione to send a disapproving glare in his direction.  Draco rolled his eyes, shaking his head, and disappeared into the hallway where Cherish was waiting, leaning against the door to their apartment.

"Hold up, babe.  Harry's still in there so we need to talk out here."

"What's up, Daddy?  Am I in trouble?  I just knew he was your Harry and after hearing about him all these years. . .well, I thought you should talk to him.  I knew you were too proud to do it on your own so I made you.  Please don't be mad at me."

"I'm not mad at you, babe.  You were right.  I did need to talk to Harry but we need to get some things straight between us."  Draco kneeled down before her, taking Cherish's hands in his own and looking up to meet her eyes.  "First of all, I'm your father.  If I want to be pretentious and create my own destruction, I want to reserve the right to do so.  Just because you were right doesn't mean that you need to interfere.  Nevertheless, thank you."

"You're welcome.  What else?  What about Harry?"

"As you know, thanks to your big-mouthed Uncle Joel, I'm still very much in love with Harry."

"Is he still in love with you?  You should be happy, Daddy."

"I will be.  The thing is, I haven't been dating in a very long time.  In fact, I think I've had one date since your mum left."

"Yeah and Uncle Joel made you go out on that one.  I remember.  I was six."

"Yeah - well, I didn't want to promise Harry anything until I discussed it with you first.  I don't want you to feel like Harry would replace you.  You're the most important person in my life.  No one comes before you.  Ever."

"I know that, Daddy, you tell me all the time.  Harry's got his own place.  Uncle Joel says that Harry's place is so big that there's no room for anyone else.  I have to agree."

"So it's okay with you if Harry and I were to start dating?"

"Of course.  Does this mean we're moving to England?"

Draco gave a short laugh.  "It's a little soon for relocation."

"But you were with Harry all those years ago, right?  What happens when his vacation is over and he needs to go home.  Harper says that they're only here on holiday until the end of June."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.  Until then, I don't want to even think about it.  I don't even kn ow if this is going to work out yet."

"Alright," said Cherish, shrugging.  "Can I meet him now?  Like, really meet him instead of just in passing?"

"If you want to."  Cherish nodded.  The corners of Draco's lips curled up into a soft smile and he wrapped his arms around her thin shoulders, pulling her into him and hugging her.  "Thank you, babe.  This means a lot to me."

"I know.  That's why I'd have made you go out with Harry if you didn't want to on your own.  Uncle Joel and I were conspiring."

Frowning, Draco pulled back from her and glaring.  "Your Uncle Joel needs to have a leash put on him."

"Now, now, Daddy, I think that's going a little far but he could use some sort of restraining device.  I love you."

"Love you, too."

Standing up, Draco reached behind Cherish to open the door to their apartment.  With one hand on her shoulder, Draco guided Cherish inside and let the door fall shut behind him.  Harry was still seated at the counter, watching the door expectantly, and when Draco entered with Cherish, he jumped up to greet them.

"Harry, this is my daughter, Cherish.  Cherish, this is Harry."

"It's nice to meet you," said Harry reaching out to shake Cherish's hand.

"It's a pleasure to make you acquaintance as well.  I've heard so much about you over the years.  Most of it comes from my Uncle Joel because my daddy is a very private person.  He's right, though.  You _are cute."_

"Cherish," hissed Draco turning a light shade of pink.  Harry grinned at him.

"What?  I was just telling Harry that he's cute.  It's called ego inflation.  You do it to me all the time.  By the way, I told my daddy that it was okay with me if you date him but I must warn you, if you make my daddy cry, me and my uncle Joel will make you cry."

"Warning noted," replied Harry, eyes wavering between Cherish and Draco, a smirk crossing his face.

"That's quite enough of this," said Draco, his hands planted on Cherish's shoulders as he led her over to the counter.  "Take a seat.  You might want to as well, Harry, unless you feel like standing.  I've got a very long story to tell you."

"Me?" said Harry, sitting down across from Cherish.

"No.  Cherish."

"Me?" she said, sliding onto the stool.  "You've got a very long story to tell me?"

"Yes," said Draco as he disappeared into his bedroom and his voice became muffled.  "You're my daughter and if I'm going to be dating Harry, you deserve to know the whole truth."  He reemerged with a long, narrow black box in his hands and he crossed back into the kitchen to take a seat next to Harry.

"Is that-" said Harry, reaching out to just brush his fingers over the cardboard.  Draco nodded.

"What do you mean 'the whole truth'?"

"You know that I don't tell Joel everything.  In fact, you know that I don't tell Joel much of anything about my life back in England and since Joel tells you everything you know, you don't know very much.  You're my daughter and you deserve to know everything, even the stuff I've never told Joel.  I don't want you to get mad at me for keeping things, but I never told you because it was from my old life and I was trying to escape.  However, with Harry back," he cast a look at Harry and smiled, "I feel that I need to tell you.  There's no point in hiding from it now."

"Daddy, you're making little to no sense.  Maybe you should tell me and then you can apologize for not telling me sooner."

"Right then," he said fumbling with the box.  "Well - babe - the thing is, you know how I've been helping Joel write the Morgan Straker books all these years.  The real fact of the matter is that I've been able to help him because I. . .really am a wizard."

"_What?" she asked, slamming her hands down on the counter._

"I'm a wizard.  Harry and I met back in a wizarding school in England.  It was called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  A lot of the stuff I suggested for Joel's books I got from being a wizard.  Purebloods, mudbloods, wands, dragons, brooms.  All real."

"What about the Owl Post?"

Draco snorted.  "Yeah, that one got Joel, too.  Yes.  Wizards use the Owl Post."

"How about Quidditch?"

"That's real, too."

"You're a wizard."

"Yes."

"Prove it."

Draco sighed, nodding, and he lifted the lid from the box.  With gentle touches, he unwrapped the scrap of old t-shirt and extracted his wand.  He could feel the warmth running through his fingers as he held his wand in his hand.  "Mahogany and dragon heartstring.  Eleven inches."

"This is your wand?" she said, cradling it in her hands as Draco passed it to her.  He nodded.

"It's the only thing I have anymore.  Please be careful with it."

Cherish nodded.  "Sure I will.  Can you please tell me the whole story now?  I think I'm beginning to understand all the preliminaries."

Sighing, Draco looked to Harry for reassurance.  Harry gave him a gentle smile and wrapped his fingers around Draco's.  "I'm a pureblood from a long wizarding line and my father, your grandfather, is a Death Eater.  You've been reading Joel's books so I'm sure you understand what that means.  In the books, Morgan is Harry's equivalent.  You can only imagine what kind of a mess that would make with a relationship between us."

"A rather sticky one, I imagine," she said and Draco nodded.

"Indeed.  I was expected to become a Death Eater but I couldn't do it.  That's the matter my father and I disagreed on.  I was disowned and I was too humiliated to grovel to Harry so I ran and when I stopped running, I found myself in New York."

"You decided to be a muggle," said Cherish, "to escape becoming a Death Eater?"

"Yes.  Those are the specifics I've been keeping from Joel."

"You went to Hogwarts.  Joel's been writing about Hogwarts for years and you really went there?  It really exists?"

"Yeah.  It really exists."

"Cool," Cherish breathed.  "Which house were you in?"

"Slytherin."

"Daddy!  Slytherins are naughty!"

"I told you my father was a Death Eater."

"I was a Gyffindor," said Harry, interrupting.

"Don't boast you bloody Gryffindor."

"Better a Gryffindor than a Slytherin."

"Now boys," said Cherish, giggling as she handed Draco his wand, "that's quite enough.  Are you going to tell Uncle Joel?"

"I suppose," said Draco, looking down at his wand, a sad and wistful expression on his face.

"He won't be mad because you didn't tell him.  He'll probably think it's really cool like I do. . .Since you're a wizard, does that mean I'll be a witch?"

Draco bit his lower lip.  "I don't know.  Melody wasn't so I'm not sure.  Maybe.  I hope so.  You'd be a half-blood."

"I can't believe this.  It's incredible.  It's unbelievable.  It's unfathomable."

"You can keep going on like this if you'd like."

Cherish laughed.  "Wow.  This is the coolest thing in the world.  My daddy is a wizard.  Why don't you ever just hex Uncle Joel or Francois?"

"I think about it.  Believe me."

"I bet you do," said Harry.  "A Malfoy and a Slytherin to the end."

"And you love it."

"I did then and I do now."

"Awe," said Cherish, clutching her hands before her chest.  "I haven't seen Daddy smile like that ever.  Harry, I should think that you will need to be working things out with my daddy.  He's so happy.  Keep doing whatever you're doing.  Otherwise I'll be forced to follow you all the way back to Britain where I'll have to stand outside your home and yell obscene things in your general direction for breaking my daddy's heart."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Well, Harry, I'd like to give you an unofficial welcome to our family," said Draco, grinning.  "I grant you permission to punish my daughter."

"Daddy," she scolded.  "Don't be like that."

Draco laughed, rounded the counter, and wrapped his arms around Cherish.  From the corner of his eye, Draco caught sight of Harry watching them embrace and he made a gentle motion with his head for Harry to join them.  He watched, grinning, as Cherish wrapped Harry in a tentative hug, his heart bursting in his chest upon watching the two people he loved more than anything together.

*~*~*~*~*

**Loved something?  Hated something?  Tell me in a REVIEW or email me at angeldlsm00@hotmail.com **


	9. On The Balcony

**Thanks to:**

**Deedee****:  Thanks for my cookie.  *YUM*******

**Romilly**** McAran:  The Slytherins really _are the best, aren't they?  I want one of those Slytherin scarves.  I love Slytherins.  *grin*  I love Snape.  Okay. . .now you got me started on the Slytherin love._**

**Cassie:  When you just discover something like Harry Potter, don't you feel overwhelmed and that's there's so much you've been missing?  I get that feeling when I started in.  *le sigh*  It seems to be so many years ago.  I'm glad you picked one of my stories.  I'm flattered.**

**Coo:  I don't usually like OC either but sometimes they can be done really well so I try to give them a chance.  I'm glad you liked mine.  I love them, too (especially Joel).**

**Evil Laughter:  Oh my god, do you really talk about my story like that?  *fans self*  I am so flattered.  Don't be _mad?  I'm thrilled.  I love you, too!!!_**

**Kelly:  I've had people say nice things but I like to be reminded.  I'm glad you love the story.  I love my readers.**

**For anyone else, thank you for reading and reviewing.  Every last comment makes my day and it's nice to know the workings inside my head are something other people can enjoy.**

**Not JK Rowling.  I don't own Harry Potter or the entire world within. Anything you recognize would belong to her.  Anything you don't would belong to me, including the crack!plot of this trifle of a story.  I am (obviously) making no money off this though if you really want to sue me, I've got $10.00.  Good day.**

*~*~*~*~*

After much hugging, bonding, and Cherish getting to know Harry and vice versa, Cherish finally persuaded Draco to leave the solitary and safe confinements of apartment 1512.  He complained, openly expressing his apprehension over visiting Joel and expressing any sentimentality on the subject of Harry before 'Granger and Weasley' but Cherish's persuasion prevailed.  Both Harry and Cherish had worked together and even got so far as almost getting him to agree to disclosing the well-kept secret on his lineage.  It was a lot of work and both Draco's daughter and boyfriend were exhausted when Cherish finally flung open the door to the apartment across the hall.

Finding the kitchen and living room areas empty, Cherish took a few paces around the apartment, Harry right behind her while Draco hung in the doorway, more than eager to return to his shelter of sanity.

"Well, now see, they aren't here.  I suppose we should just saunter back home then.  No use in hanging around if they're out and about."

"Now you just wait, Daddy," said Cherish, spotting a small contingent of people through the window.  "They're out on the balcony.  You come on."  Slinking her arm around Harry's, she escorted him down the hall to the balcony door.  Draco trudged behind, not about to disagree with the menacing little figure trotting along before him.

With the opening of the balcony door, a cool jet of air rushed in the warm apartment causing goose pimples to prick on Draco's flesh.  The contrast chilled him, shivers skirting along the length of his spine, and Draco wrapped his arms around his torso, palm rubbing in a wild friction against his arm as Cherish stepped outside before him.  Once submerged in the warm spring air, the hairs on Draco's arm began to calm.  He could hear the door to the balcony close behind him and it was immediately followed by Harry's hands wrapping around his waist, palms left to rest flat against his hipbone.

"What are you _doing?" asked Draco upon seeing Ron and Joel leaning over the balcony, heads bent toward the sidewalk below.  Hermione and Samantha were seated on the concrete ledge jutting out from the building, their backs pressed flat against the brick.  With Draco's words, all eyes turned to Cherish, Harry, and him, their sights especially glued to the placement of Harry's hands.  Smirks simultaneously crossed all faces, strange task at hand temporarily forgotten._

Cocking an eyebrow and never taking his eyes away from Harry's hands, Joel snickered.  "Looks like things went well between the two of you."

"Daddy and Harry are dating again," said Cherish, wide grin just big enough to show her tongue poking through her teeth and displaying a loose tooth that looked just about ready to come out.

"It's about damn time," said Joel.  "It's been so long since I've seen Draco with a date that I think I'm going to go blind."

"Joel," reprimanded Samantha.  "I think it's wonderful.  Have you decided what your plans are over your vacation?"

"We just figured we'd work things out as we go.  I'm on holiday and I intend to spend a good portion of my time here with Draco, if that's alright with you, Hermione, Ron."

"Of course, Harry.  This holiday was about getting you out.  Ron and I are more than capable of handling our children.  You have fun."

"You can stay with us if you'd like," said Cherish, grinning at him.

"Cherish has taken to Harry," said Draco.  "I'm almost afraid to let them spend too much time together.  If they bond anymore I'm going to lose Harry to my eight year old daughter."

"She _is gorgeous," said Harry.  Cherish beamed._

"I look like my daddy."

"I know.  I told him the same thing."

"Well I'm glad to see you smiling again," said Joel.  "I just can't believe that out of all the people to saunter into your diner today, it was _the Harry Potter that we've all been hearing about for years."_

"Years?  Why, Malfoy, I'm flattered."

"Do try and keep your ego in check, Potter.  You knew I loved you.  No need for you to get a big head over it now."

"Harry deserves to have a big head," said Ron.  "After you left him, he's been a self-loathing workaholic.  I do hope you do something for each other.  If I have to continue hearing about how awful your life has been, Malfoy, and think about how awful Harry's been feeling, I just may have to scream.  It's hard to get enjoyment out of a Malfoy serving people when I have to hear about how said Malfoy came upon said career."

"I sympathize, Weasley.  I do love being the object of disgrace.  Please keep all comments that I know you're just dying to unleash on me in regards to my employment under wraps.  You stiffed me on a tip and after the Joel fiasco, I'd say you owe me."

"Sorry, Malfoy, but I did help deliver Harry back into your arms.  That should count for something."

"Yes, Weasley, I'm exhilarated to have the ever constant presence of Harry Potter back in my life.  There's nothing like having the Boy-Who-Lived on your arm to say just how special you are."

"Boy-Who-Lived?" asked Joel, cocking an eyebrow.  "That sounds like it came right out of one of my books."

"I'll explain all in due time."

"You haven't told him, Malfoy?" said Ron, smirking.  "You've been friends for ten years, you help him write those books, and you still haven't told him?"

"I will all in due time.  Don't go exposing the whole operation.  I should have known that all it takes to divulge information on a well-kept secret is to have a Weasley around for more than ten minutes."

"Can someone explain?" said Joel, setting aside a balloon.

"_All in due time.  My first order of business, however.  Answer my first question.  What were you doing?"_

"Dropping jam balloons onto pedestrians below.  I think someone has already called the cops."

"Jam balloons?"

"Yeah."  Samantha leaned over to hand Draco a purple balloon.  The rubber squished out from beneath his fingers in weird lumps, the texture thick beneath the stretched material.  Draco gave a gentle push with his thumb and the filling seethed out from beneath the pressure displacing itself in the area around his finger.

"What exactly is a jam balloon?"

"A balloon filled with strawberry jam," replied Joel, snatching one out of the bin sitting on the ground before Samantha and Hermione.  "It took a lot of explaining and convincing but I eventually got Ron to go for it.  Both Samantha and Hermione were highly disapproving but I told Sam that she's become an old maid since we got married so she caved.  Wanna help?"

"No thank you," he replied, placing the balloon back in the bin.  Cherish was leaning beside it, a yellow balloon clutched in her hand as she examined it.  "It's a step up from bathtub gourmet, however."

"Well after the spaghetti incident, Sam won't allow me to cook in the bathtub any longer.  I keep reminding her of her approval when I was cooking pudding-"

"But I then reminded him that it was not my bathtub, but his own.  Can you imagine what Mr. Davis would do if he had to replace our bathtub because Joel ruined it with Bunsen burners, heating lamps, and a porcelain tub full of pasta?"

Draco and Cherish snickered.  "I can only imagine Mr. Davis's face," said Cherish.  "Daddy, can I go in and play with Devin and Harper while you tell Uncle Joel and Aunt Sam about the secret?"

"Go for it," he said, smiling at her and feeling Harry's arms tighten around his waist as she disappeared back into the apartment.

Draco leaned back into Harry, sighing as he felt his chest press against his back, and for a moment, he wanted to cry.  It was as if the reality of the whole ordeal had suddenly hit him.  The events of the ten years passed since Hogwarts came wafting through his mind.  His father, New York, Melody, and Cherish.  Joel, Samantha, pudding, cough drops, and Morgan Straker books.  Coloring books, PTA meetings, doctor appointments, and pony rides.  Birthday parties, little girls with little curls, ribbons, and rooms decorated in pink and purple.  Jobs at diners, coffee houses, French men with bad attitudes, and failed attempts at college.  So much to go through and now after all that, he was leaning back into Harry.  It was so sudden, so unexpected, and so unlikely that he couldn't believe that it was coincidental.  He wanted to believe it was fate and he grasped like mad to Harry's hands.  It had been so much that Draco didn't want to go through any more alone.  He lost Harry the first time.  If this was destiny, Draco was not going to disappoint.

"So what is this secret that Cherish speaks of?  Does this have to do with the 'Boy Who Lived' comment?  Is it due time?" asked Joel, wiggling his eyebrows.

"That's what I need to talk to you about.  Perhaps we should go inside for this one."

"Perhaps," said Joel, a hint of teasing in his voice as he walked inside through the balcony door.  Ron smirked as he followed inside.

"I'm sorry about Ron but you know how he is," said Hermione giving Draco a reassuring squeeze on his shoulder.  "Congratulations you two.  Don't screw this up or I'll never forgive you."  Hermione wrapped her arms around both Harry in Draco in one hug before disappearing inside.

"That goes for me, too.  Don't go purposely sabotaging this."  Samantha smirked, following Hermione and leaving Draco and Harry to follow suit.

Draco didn't go in at first but instead, slid out of Harry's arms and approached the ledge.  He dropped to the concrete in an unceremonious slump and picked up a green balloon filled with jaw.  As the jam oozed out underneath the pressure of his fingertips, Draco watched with an unfaltering intensity.  Harry leaned against the railing, watching Draco.

"It goes for me, too.  I want this to work, Draco.  I always have."

A small smile crept across Draco's lips.  "You aren't the only one, Harry.  It all depends on what happens during your holiday.  We've been together before.  We don't need all the niceties that are involved in the beginning of a relationship.  What we do need is to prove to each other that our new lives can coincide in harmony."

"There's plenty of room for you in my life.  The question lies in whether or not I'll fit into yours."

"That's why you're on a trial basis.  Cherish's offer stands.  If you want, you're more than welcome to live with us while you're in New York.  I guess I want to see if, in your terms, you fit into my life.  The most important thing to me is that you and Cherish can form a relationship.  If not. . ."

"I know.  Your daughter comes first.  It's expected, Draco.  I'm not about to try and come between you and Cherish.  For now I propose that we just drift and I'll try to form a seamless relationship with her.  When its time for me to go home, well, I guess that's when the final judgment is passed.  I can do this.  Can you?"

"You have no idea what I've been through, Harry.  Don't patronize me."

"I wasn't.  I love you, Draco.  I want a fair chance.  I want to clear that with you before I spend my holiday with you hoping that you haven't already made a decision in the back of your mind.  Let me prove myself to you.  Let me love you."

Harry could see Draco chewing gently on his bottom lip and he smiled.  He was thinking it over.  It was a sight out of the past, oddly familiar in the haunted caverns of his memories.  There were many times during their seventh year, during their romance, when Harry would catch Draco deep in thought, his teeth nipping without menace at his bottom lip.  When the action ceased and he caught the faint sight of pink trailing over his lip, massaging the flesh, Harry's grin broadened.  It may have been ten years, but he was right.  Different, definitely, but Draco was still Draco despite his protests and Harry could still read him like a book.  He had come to a positive conclusion, the conclusion that Harry wanted to hear, and he knew what Draco's words were going to be even before they came out of his mouth.

"Okay, Harry.  You win.  I don't. . .you know I don't want to agree to this but. . ."

"You still love me.  You can't get me out of your head.  Even thought you don't want to concede you can't deny me because I still mean too much to you."

"Arrogance isn't flattering on you, Potter."

"I wasn't being arrogant, I was being accurate."

"Sod off, Potter."

"I love you, too, Malfoy."  Draco tried to glare but looking at Harry, staring into those all too familiar emerald eyes, was doing a number on his thought process.  He thought the message to his brain got intercepted somewhere along the way because the scowl he had been going for did not appear on his face.  Instead, a smile had materialized before he could stop himself.

"I suppose Joel is waiting for us," said Draco, placing the balloon back into the container.

"I suppose.  Shall we?"  He extended his arm, part of Harry thinking that maybe he was pushing his luck, but Draco's expression softened and he wrapped his arm around Harry's.  The feeling was too familiar, almost eerie, but Harry refused to let go as his fingertips skimmed over the pale, milky flesh of Draco's arm.  It was still as soft and silky as he had remembered and his fingers brushed just under the cuff of his t-shirt before meeting the steel grey of Draco's eyes.  "I'm sorry.  It's just. . .I've missed you so much.  You have no idea."

"Actually, Harry, since I've been missing you to the point I've cut myself off from almost everything I held dear, I have some idea.  I know I haven't been doing an extraordinary job of showing it, but I'm more than glad to see you.  Honestly, this has to work between us because I don't think I can lose you again."

"Then that goes for two of us.  Believe me, I still love you more than anything.  Just ask Ron and Hermione.  I've been burying myself in work so that I can't think about you.  It hurts too much to remember losing you."

"Thinking isn't exactly my favorite pastime either.  There is a reason I spend all of my time with Joel, Sam, and Cherish."

"I'll try very hard to get along with Cherish.  I don't expect her to think of me like a father.  She has one of those and a bloody good one, I imagine, but if she can find it in her heart to accept me as part of the family. . ."

"That's what I'm hoping for."

"Me too."

"I love you, Harry."

"I love you, too."

"I suppose we should go in.  Joel must be getting very antsy since he knows I have some sort of secret to tell him."

"How ever do you put up with him?"

"You grow accustomed to him after some time," said Draco, pulling ahead of Harry and opening the door for both of them.

They wandered into the main part of the apartment where all four were sitting in the kitchen at the table.  Joel was showing Ron an uncooked strand of spaghetti and the effects of lighting it on fire.  He caught Samantha's voice whispering the word 'pyromaniac' as Joel dropped the smoldering piece of pasta into an ashtray, watching it burn, curl, and turn black before the flames diminished.

"Well it's about time you join us.  I was going to go out and get you but Sam wouldn't let me.  She said you were probably making out and that you deserved to be left alone."

"I did not.  I said that you haven't seen each other in a very long time, deserved your privacy, and that there was probably a good reason you hadn't joined us yet.  Hermione backed me up on that and then Joel said you were probably getting your freak on."

"Yes," said Draco in his old, familiar drawl, "Potter and I were shagging on your balcony.  We originally intended just to get in a good, quick snog, but I couldn't resist."

"It's about time," said Joel, grinning.  "I suppose that means it still works.  Some of us thought that you would be having difficulties in getting it fully erect as it's been so long since you've worked the boys."

"Thank you, Joel.  I did need that thought brought into my mind."

Harry snickered, taking a seat next to Ron.  Draco leaned against the counter scowling at his friend.

"So what is this big secret that you wanted to tell us?"

Draco glanced uncertainly at Harry, Ron, and Hermione before going into the entire 'wizard' explanation.  He spilled everything from Hogwarts, to his father, to Harry and his 'Boy-Who-Lived' status leaving both Joel and Samantha staring at him, gaping.

"What?" said Joel.  "Nuh uh.  You're. . ."

"A wizard," finished Draco.  "Is this going to cause problems?  You aren't going to call me a freak and kick me out of your apartment, are you?"

"No.  Of course not.  But you really are?  Seriously?  Like, do you really use owls for your mail?"

"What is this fascination with the owls?"

Joel shrugged.  "Do you?"

"I did but not anymore as I've been living as a muggle for ten years."

"I know," said Ron, smirking before going into laughter.  "Your father would die of shame if he knew.  A Malfoy.  A Malfoy living as a muggle and _serving muggles.  It's too priceless."_

"Sod off, Weasley."

"I take it you come from one of those arrogant, pureblood families I write about."

"Yeah," said Draco, softly.

"So this whole time you've been helping me, you've really just been pushing me in the direction of the way things are where you come from."

"Yeah, I have."

"And when you told me all about your 'ideas' for Hogwarts, you were really just telling me about what the real Hogwarts is like?"

"Yeah."

"And when you started helping me come up with ideas for Morgan Straker's past, you were telling me about Harry's past."

"Yeah."

"What about wands?  Do you really have wands like we use for my books?"

Draco slid his wand out of his pocket, brandished it at Joel, and then set it on the kitchen table.  Samantha and Joel stared at it in awe as if it would start casting spells on its own.

"Being a bit careless with your wand?" said Ron.  "You'd've never done that in Hogwarts."

"There were too many people at Hogwarts that wanted to hex me.  Joel could start swish and flicking that at me, screaming _Avada__ Kedavra at the top of his lungs, and I highly doubt even gold sparks would shoot out the end of it.  He's not a wizard, much less a trained one."_

"This is true.  I could, though, you know."

"Yes, but you have your own wand, and I imagine you have it on you as well."

"I do."

"Can you do something with it?" asked Samantha, reaching out with a tentative hand to brush her fingertips over the wood.

"Yeah!  Do something cool!" said Joel, grasping it and shoving it back at Draco.

Draco sighed, looking around the kitchen, and with a flick of his wrist, he said, "_Wingardium__ Leviosa!" causing the salt and pepper shakers to levitate._

"Wow," said Joel, both he and Samantha staring in awe, but Harry clicked his tongue in disapproval.  "What?  I thought it was pretty cool."

"Any first year could do that.  Pathetic, Malfoy.  You were Head Boy, I'm sure you can do something more impressive than that."

"You were Head Boy?" asked Joel.  Draco nodded.  "Is that the same thing as being Head Boy in my books?"

"Yeah."

"Well what else were you.  Come on, indulge me.  You've been guiding me in my books all these years.  Tell me about your real history in terms of my books.  I want to know everything."

"Really?  You don't think I'm a freak or a tool of Satan?"

"What about a tool of Satan?" asked Hermione but Draco ignored her as he noticed a cloud of recognition cover Joel's eyes.

"Is _that what that huge fight all stemmed from?" he asked and Draco shrugged, nodding.  "Because Melody said that magic was evil?  You were personally offended!"_

"Well, yeah.  I was."

"After all these years, that part's finally starting to make sense.  Of course you got up in arms about her tool of Satan comment.  You're a wizard!"

"Well, yeah.  She just started saying that magic was evil and that everyone who used magic was evil."

"Uh oh," said Ron.

"Exactly my sentiments," replied Draco.  "I wasn't evil.  I left, got disowned by my father because I didn't want to be evil.  I wasn't going to have her tell me I was."

"So your father was evil.  That was the matter you disagreed on.  It wasn't the homosexual issue," said Joel.  "Tell me everything, Draco.  The wizard thing is out, now.  Tell us everything.  Give us long awaited details.  Tell me in terms of my books so I can understand."

"You'll understand even if I didn't talk in 'terms of your books'.  Everything I helped you develop is the truth.  There are Death Eaters, mail is delivered by owls, and Howlers are really unpleasant to receive."

"Howlers are real?"

"Yes," muttered Ron and the other three former students of Hogwarts smirked at him, clearly remembering the Howler he had received in his second year.

"Harry is like Morgan," explained Draco, "and these two," he motioned between Ron and Hermione, "are like Diana and Alex."

"I see.  You're the Gryffindor trio that gets into trouble," said Joel.  "Are the houses like you said?"

"Yeah.  They were Gryffindors."

"Gryffindor pride," said Ron and he and Harry took on proud, haughty looks before breaking out into chuckles.  Hermione rolled her eyes but there was a hint of smile on her lips.  Draco scowled at them.

"I don't see what's so great about being a Gryffindor."

"You wouldn't, Malfoy, you slimy, Slytherin git."

"You were a Slytherin?" said Joel, smirking.  "I didn't see that one coming."

"I've read your books," said Hermione, noticing Draco's pink tinge.  "Albus Dumbledore, our headmaster and the real version of Professor King in your books, sent them to me.  Believe me, we've all noticed the parallels between them and our years at Hogwarts.  We've been wondering who you really were or who was slipping you information.  We didn't think it was Malfoy because he was there, too, causing just as many problems as ever."

"I have a Draco parallel in my book?" asked Joel, amused.

"No you do not," said Draco but Hermione silenced him.

"Now, Draco, if you were going to tell him about what a git you were than you had better be ready to stand up to it.  Draco would better be known to you and your readers as Tom Malloy."

Joel left out a snort of laughter but Draco scowled, not finding it at all funny.  Samantha hid her face in the crook of her arm, clearly trying to conceal her obvious amusement.  "Malloy!?  He's such a brat!"

"Well so's Malfoy," said Ron.  "The parallels go on forever.  Malfoy is a pureblood, Slytherin, and his father is every bit as bad as he is in your books."

"Does that mean your father is a Death Eater?" he asked.

"He was," said Harry before Draco had a chance to interrupt.  "That's why we broke up.  Draco was going to become a Death Eater but he faked out and came to New York instead.  Lucius is in Azkaban now."

"The wizard prison?"  Harry nodded.  "Your father's name is Lucius?"

"Yes," snapped Draco.  "Can we please stop talking about me?"

"Okay, Malloy," said Joel with a snicker.

"It's Malfoy," said Draco.

"That's not much better," said Ron.

"Oh you two are impossible."  Draco left the kitchen area to drop into the couch and flipped on the television, ignoring the sounds of Harry, Ron, and Hermione filling them in on what Draco was like at school.  Every so often a snort would sound over in his direction and Draco figured that Joel and Samantha had just heard something especially embarrassing for him, amusing for them.

It was only after hours of torment when Joel suggested going out on the balcony.  With alcohol bottles in hand, Samantha followed Joel out with the blender plugged into the outlet just inside the balcony door.  Hermione carried out the glasses, Draco reluctantly following.  Harry wrapped his arms around Draco's waist, kissing the spot just behind his ear and nuzzling his nose against Draco's cheek.

"You know, this is really kind of creepy to watch," said Joel.  "I know that Draco's been helping me with the books, that Harry's Morgan and Draco's Tom, and I know that Draco and Harry are together.  It's like thinking of my characters being together."

"Well we came first, not your characters."

"I can't believe you're Tom," he said, snickering.  "Tom's such a pain.  No one likes him.  He's annoying and whiny and thinks he's being a badass when he's really a pansy, fairy boy."

"The insults can stop now," snapped Draco.  Harry gave a soft laugh before tightening his arms around Draco's waist and letting his lips brush over the back of Draco's neck.

"I can't believe you've been living here for ten years, Malfoy," said Ron, staring down at the streets.  "Look at how strange these muggles are.  A girl with a purple spiked Mohawk just walked by."

"People who look like that make me look less odd."

"And Draco is odd-looking with his platinum hair and vampire skin."

"Vampire skin?" asked Draco as Joel downed a shot of tequila.  Hermione and Samantha were sipping at margueritas but both Joel and Ron were taking their shots of tequila straight.  Both Harry and Draco had refused alcohol and everyone was looking at Joel and Ron just waiting for them to get piss drunk.

"Yeah.  You have this really white skin that makes you look like a vampire."

"I always thought you were more veela-like than a vampire," said Harry, brushing his fingers through Draco's hair.  "You wear it down now.  You always used to slick it back."

"Yeah," said Draco, shifting.

"I like it better this way.  You look beautiful."

"Now this is sweet," said Joel, leaning back against the building.  "Draco, we should have gone and found Harry a long time ago.  Look at him.  Can't keep his hands off of you.  Melody never looked at you like that."

"And how, exactly, does Harry look at me?"

"With love," Harry whispered into his ear, his comment going unnoticed by the others.  Draco felt his eyelids flutter upon feeling the words brushing across his skin in the form of hot breaths.

"I don't know.  It's this sweet, sappy, in love look."

"Yeah.  Its kind of gross," said Ron, taking another shot and teetering as he looked through the bars on the balcony.  "Look at this muggle girl.  Her clothing doesn't even match and her head is shaved."

"New York has some colorful characters," said Samantha pulling a flannel blanket around her.  "Are you sure you don't want anything to drink, Harry?"

"No.  I want to be perfectly sober on my first night back with Draco.  He intoxicates me enough."

"Harry, you're going to embarrass me."

"I think it's sweet," said Hermione.  Samantha grinned at him in that way that girls do when they think something is cute.

"It's sappy and corny," said Joel, tipping the alcohol down his throat and wincing at the burn.  "Aw, man, look at that guy."  He pointed across the street to a neighboring apartment building.  Through the window they could see a large, grossly overweight man doing aerobics in bright blue spandex.  "Doesn't he know that some people have eyes and can see that shit?  Ew, nasty!"

"At least he's exercising," said Samantha, snickering.

"No, seriously, look at his fat jiggle!  That shit is nasty.  Draco, can't you do some fancy shit with your wand so that we don't have to look at that?"

"I'm not using my wand anymore, remember?"

"But you did that cool levitating floating salt and pepper shaker thing."

"Well I can't use magic in front of muggles anyway.  The ministry would have a fit if half of New York saw me use magic."

"Yes but they'd have some word from you," said Ron.

"Oh don't you go and try to encourage him, Ron Weasley," said Hermione.  "You know how much trouble he would be in if a whole bunch of muggles found out about wizards."

"Speaking of having some word from you, I think we should write Dumbledore," said Harry, brushing his fingers over Draco's naked forearms.  "Let him know where you are.  That you're safe.  No one's heard anything about you since your father went to Azkaban."

"Are you going to write with an owl?" asked Joel with sudden interest.

"Of course.  I believe Hermione and Ron brought one of their owls with on the holiday to have contact with the wizarding world.  Updates on Hogwarts and the bookshop."

"The bookshop?" asked Draco.  "Hogwarts?"

"Yes.  Ron, Hermione, and I all co-own a bookshop in Hogsmeade.  Hermione teaches Charms at Hogwarts.  Dumbledore gave her leave to get me out of Hogsmeade."

"Bugger.  That crackpot old codger sending you to New York," muttered Draco.

"This is so weird," said Joel.  "Hogsmeade.  You actually live in Hogsmeade."

"Did he say you teach Charms, Hermione?"  She nodded.  "What happened to Flitwick?"

"He retired so I was given his job."

"I see.  Snape still work there?"

"Yeah.  We're on civil terms since we're both professors now."

"I see.  That must be wonderful."

"It is."

"To wizards and the Owl Post and gay sex," said Joel, holding up his shot glass.

"I'll drink to that," said Ron and they tapped their glasses together before pouring the shots down their throats.

"He's going to be drunk out of his skull in ten minutes," Harry whispered to Draco.  He placed his palms flat against Draco's stomach, one of top of the other, and he applied a light pressure as he nuzzled his nose against the back of Draco's neck.  "Maybe we should be going back to your apartment."

"Our apartment," said Draco, his voice airy and breathless.  Hermione caught their exchange of words and nudged Samantha in the ribs, directing her attention to Draco and Harry.

"Our apartment.  I like the sound of that.  I know your daughter comes first but does she have to come back tonight?  I would rather enjoy being alone with you for a night."  Harry trailed his tongue over the back of Draco's neck and flicked it into the cavern just behind Draco's ear.

Draco's inhalation came in a quick intake, his breath hissing through his teeth.  "I think. . .I think that could be arranged.  She could - spend the night - with Devin.  Gods, Harry, knock that off until we're alone."

Harry smirked against Draco's neck causing the shivers to return to Draco's spine.  When he turned to look at Samantha, he saw her already staring at him, an amused and knowing smile on his face.

"Er- Sam. . ."

"She can spend the night here."

"That's right, buddy," said Joel, pointing at Draco and in the process, dropping his shotglass.  It shattered on the concrete and he looked down at it, staring in confusion before his gaze returned to Draco.  "Cher can stay here.  We believe in life after love.  You go get laid."  He faltered in his step, grasped onto Ron's wavering shoulder for support, and hoisted himself up onto the ledge.  "If I could turn back time," he started to bellow out before Samantha was on her feet and coaxing Joel down.

"He's just a little drunk," said Samantha, leading him to the door.  "I'm going to make him lay down and then I'll tell Cher she's staying the night.  You go back with Harry and have fun."  She winked, walking back inside, and Hermione followed, leading a tipsy Ron.  He could hear Samantha giving them permission to spend the night as Hermione didn't want to lead a drunken Ron through the streets of New York babbling about muggles and spandex.

"Let's go back, then," said Harry, standing up and winking at Draco before they, too, left the balcony.

*~*~*~*~*

**Loved something?  Hated something?  Tell me in a REVIEW or email me at angeldlsm00@hotmail.com **

**On another note, I need a beta for a new story I'm writing.  If interested, email me privately and I'll send you the plot synopsis so you can decide whether you want to do it or not.  It will eventually be Draco/Harry and will be rated 'R' for some disturbing themes (will be explained in the email).  Thanks to anyone who responds to my shameless advertising.**


	10. Mr Garen

**Just a collective thank you to those who read and review this story.****  And thanks to those who responded to my beta ad.  The first chapter to said story has been sent to my betas and I hope to have it up on Friday.  It's darker than this fic (a lot darker) but if you like dark stories, please do me a favor and look for it.  Thanks.**

**Excuse my spelling mistakes.  This is my pre-beta days.**

**Not JK Rowling.  I don't own Harry Potter or the entire world within. Anything you recognize would belong to her.  Anything you don't would belong to me, including the crack!plot of this trifle of a story.  I am (obviously) making no money off this though if you really want to sue me, I've got $10.00.  Good day.**

*~*~*~*~*

Draco opened his eyes and stared across his bedroom to the light streaming in through the window.  He was about to climb out of bed when he felt the cotton of his sheets moving with a rough yet sweet friction against his nude form.  The events of yesterday came toppling down on him, scenes from the diner, Joel's apartment, and even his own apartment played over in his head.

He had woken up and the day was just like any other day.  After walking Cherish to school, he returned home, dressed for work, and arrived early at the diner to catch Francois come out of the back and mutter something about mice.  In his bitter, unhappy little French accent, he and Draco set out for the search for the mouse he claimed he saw but after an extensive search, Draco was convinced that no such mouse existed and they opened up for business.  Friday was always excruciating with rude and boisterous customers but his heart had nearly stopped when he came out of the back and saw the Gryffindor trio in the diner.

Ron had been an incorrigible prat but Hermione had been rather nice about things.  Harry was stiff and avoidant but Draco made it a point to remain professional.  Joel came in, walking Cherish back from school like he always did because Draco didn't like her wandering the streets of New York on his own.  It wasn't that he didn't trust her or didn't think she could handle herself in the city, but he didn't want her to wander over to Broadway and blow her entire allowance on the Virgin Megastore again.  His overprotective nature did him in and his old schoolmates overheard everything Joel had to say about the declining events in his life over the past ten years.

Cherish had forced them to talk.  Draco clearly remembered that and now Harry was his boyfriend for the second time in his life.  He had run away from the wizarding world and from London only to have Harry Potter back in his life, more accurately, back in his bed.  They had decided to be together and after Joel got drunk on the balcony, Harry and Draco went back across the hall.  It took all of five minutes before Harry had him trapped up against the door, his hands roaming over Draco's body in sweet touches, his breath ghosting over the warm and flushed skin of his cheeks.

Harry had kissed him, tasted him, and stripped Draco free of his clothing before leading him into his bedroom.  Not only had it been a long time since Harry but it had been a long time all together and Draco found his body more than ready to react to the touches.  Going for so long without the feelings of pleasure and gratification that sex can give, Draco's mind just about exploded when he was reacquainted.  Harry had moved above him, inside him, touching him with love and the kind of yearning that only a ten year separation can bring.

It was all very unbelievable yet happening and Draco was having a hard time keeping his mind up to pace with the events turning around.  Checking the clock on the night table, he saw that it was 8:30 and he groaned, burying his face back into his pillow.  He had the morning off but Francois would want him in at 3:00 whether he had just been reunited with his long lost love or not.  There was a sense in his mind of things being very surreal.  Harry had been gone for so long and it was very strange for Draco to think that they had just made love the night before.  He knew he had missed Harry but now he realized just how much.

His thoughts were interrupted as he felt an arm wrap around his waist, palm laying flat against his stomach, and a thumb drew circles on the exposed flesh of his stomach.  Harry's breath was hot on the back of his neck, sweet, and the sound of him breathing seemed amplified in the silent shelter of his bedroom.  It was as if no one else in the world existed but the two of them and the setting of their reunion both as a couple and as lovers.

"Good morning," said Draco, turning his face only slightly so that his words wouldn't be drowned in the fluff of the pillow.

"Good morning," Harry whispered into his ear, his lips brushing over his ear.  "How did you sleep?"

"Better than I have in a long time.  You?"

"The same.  We always were on the same wavelength, weren't we?"

"Mmm," he moaned, leaning back into Harry.  "I like waking up with you."

"It's been a very long time, hasn't it?"

"Yeah," he said, sighing as he thought of the last night they had spent together in the Head Boy room.

It had been a few days before they broke up, after Draco had made the decision to do so but before he was sure of whether he would be able to go through with it or not.  Harry had snuck down to the dungeons like he so often did but after they made love in the privacy of the Head Boy room, Draco had asked him to stay.  Most of the time Harry would leave except for special occasions, both of them worried that someone beside Ron and Hermione would miss him and wonder where he spent the night.  Harry had been hesitant but Draco pointed out that they would be leaving Hogwarts soon, the guiding force in his words being that he knew they would be leaving each other.  After persuasion, Harry had caved, not really wanting to leave Draco anyway, and he had settled under the blankets for the night.  They never bothered to dress, sleeping naked wrapped in each other's limbs much like they would ten years later in New York City.

When Draco had awoken, he had found Harry settled in his arms and still fast asleep.  He had been mumbling Draco's name in his sleep and his disheveled black hair had parted enough to show the thin scar on his forehead, an ever constant reminder of the complications with them being together.  It was then that he knew he needed to break up with Harry.  He couldn't be selfish.  Their relationship could kill the both of them and Harry didn't need to have Draco as a weakness when it came to Voldemort.  He knew Harry would hate him, but it was better that then loving him and dying for it.

"What are you thinking about?" said Harry, breaking his thought process.  He tried to force a smile but it faltered and he was left with a forlorn, sardonic grimace.  "That doesn't look good.  I'm sorry.  Was that a bad question to ask?"

"No," he said, soft, and turning over in Harry's arms.  "Let me hold you."

Harry didn't ask questions though there was a light in his eyes, a nosy light that Draco recognized from their years at Hogwarts that showed he clearly wanted to.  He shifted, turned, and let Draco's arms slide around him.  His hands skirted up Draco's sides from behind until he found his fingers.  Twining their fingers together, Harry brought them out from beneath the blankets and let them rest on the green material.

"I was thinking about our last night together."

"Me too," admitted Harry.  "I thought you loved me that night."

"I did love you that night.  I loved you every night.  I loved you before we even became a couple.  Do you remember why we even got together?"

"I remember everything about being with you.  I came out to the Gryffindors and they treated me okay.  Even the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs were okay.  It was the Slytherins that were awful except for you.  I remember how strange that was.  Out of all the people who ridiculed me, you weren't one of them.  Then you cornered me after Potions one day, said you wanted to talk.  I was hesitant but I agreed."

"And we missed dinner while I poured my heart out to you.  I didn't even know what I was saying, all I knew was that I got about ten words into the speech I had planned in my head when I burst into tears and told you I was bisexual."

"Yeah.  You didn't tell anyone because you knew the Slytherins would react to you the way they reacted to me.  I didn't know what to say to you."

"You said you'd be my friend."

"I know.  I don't know why I said it.  It just slipped out.  After I said it, I thought for sure that you'd tell me to sod off because you didn't want to be friends with me but you didn't.  You said that you'd like that.  And we became friends."

"I told you everything, Harry.  I don't think you realized it then but no one knew even half as much about me as you did.  I trusted you completely.  I trusted you with my life."

"You're right.  I didn't realize it.  I just knew that you spilled everything to me.  You talked about your father and the Death Eaters and I tried to convince you that you didn't have to serve Voldemort.  Sometimes I thought I was going to get through to you."

"You did get through to me.  I objected when the time came, didn't I?"

"Yeah, I guess you did."

"That's what made me fall in love with you, Harry.  You cared.  No one ever cared about me the way that you did.  Everyone judged me for so long but you were the first person who looked beyond the Malfoy name to see what I had to offer.  I remember you asking me what else I could do.  You said you knew I was good at Potions and that my father thought I would make an excellent Death Eater, but you wanted to know what was beneath the Malfoy and who Draco was."

"Yeah," said Harry, softly.  "I remember that.  I can't believe you do."

"Of course I do.  That was when I fell in love with you.  You made me see that I wasn't just a Malfoy.  You made me understand that I didn't have to be who my father was.  I've loved you ever since."

"Then why did you break up with me?  If you knew you didn't have to go down that road, why did you break up with me?"

"I thought I had to," he admitted.  "I thought that I had no choice.  We were too much in love.  I thought that if I didn't, it was like signing your death sentence.  My father wanted me to become a Death Eater.  You made me see I had choices, I just didn't think I was strong enough to follow my own road.  I thought that if I wasn't strong enough, I would become a Death Eater and you would foolishly allow your love for me to get in the way of defeating Voldemort.  If I broke up with you, I thought you would hate me and then you wouldn't love me anymore.  Then it wouldn't be my fault if you let Voldemort kill you."

"You're an idiot, you know that?" said Harry.

"I love you, too."

"No, I mean it.  You went through this hell for ten years and all because you didn't want me to die."

"The past ten years may have been hell but they were destined to happen.  I wouldn't trade them for anything.  I've discovered so much living here as a muggle, and now I have my daughter, too.  Sometimes I regret what I did, but I know it happened for a reason."

"I thought you didn't believe in fate."

"I didn't but now I do.  I didn't believe in God, or Satan, or hell and heaven before I moved here, either.  My daughter grew up with a faith other than Voldemort.  Whenever I regret breaking up with you, I just remind myself that I wouldn't have Cherish if it wouldn't have happened.  That always tends to make the regret go away."

"You love her very much."

"Yeah, but I also love you very much."

Harry placed his hands on either side of Draco's face, brought him close and brushed his lips over Draco's.  He smiled, sat up in bed, and rumpled the covers around his waist and he slid over to the side of the bed.  "I'm going to have to go back to the hotel this morning.  I want to write Dumbledore and get my things.  Can I borrow something until then?"

"Go ahead," said Draco, laying back in bed as he watched Harry walk over to his closet and dig through the clothes until he found something he deemed suitable.  "Do we really have to write Dumbledore?"

"I think we should.  He'll probably find out anyway."

"That crazy old man knows everything.  Its rather creepy if you ask me.  How did he even know I was living in New York?  He probably already knows we're back together."

"I don't know.  Maybe he's a seer."

"But then why would he keep Trelawney around?"

"Maybe she amuses him."

"He does have a rather sadistic sense of humor."

"Yes, there's much to the headmaster that remains a mystery."

Once dressed, Harry kissed Draco goodbye to head back to the hotel.  Draco had showered, dressed, and eaten breakfast in the time Harry was gone.  He wandered across the hall a half hour later, knocking once on Joel's door before entering.  Hermione was nursing Ron, who was dealing with what seemed to be a rather nasty hangover, by the couch.  Joel was lounged on the ground, mumbling about too much alcohol and he recognized it as the speech Joel gave himself every time he had a hangover, vowing never to drink again.

"Hi, Daddy," said Cherish from the kitchen table.  Samantha and Joel's two children, Devin and Andrea, were seated by her with the three children from the diner that he presumed to be the Weasley children.  "I heard you and Harry spent the night together."

"Did you get laid?" asked Joel from the floor, wincing at the volume of his voice booming in his own head.

Draco turned a rather intense shade of red, the crimson highly visible against his usually pale skin.  Joel snickered.

"Guess that answers my question," he said.  "Good job, Draco.  I'm proud of you."

"Thanks," he muttered.  "Hey, babe, you almost done with breakfast?  I thought I'd come pick you up."

"Yep.  Where's Harry?"

"He went back to the hotel to get his things."

"So he's moving in with us?"

"For the remainder of his holiday, yes.  Is that alright with you?"

"Alright?  I'm the one who offered."

"Is he sending a letter to Dumbledore?" asked Hermione as she handed Ron a glass of water.

"Yeah.  I don't see the reason to tell the crazy old koot.  He probably knows already, anyway."

"Well someone from the wizarding world should know where you've been for ten years.  Even if he does know, a confirmation would be nice.  He'll want to know that his obvious attempt at a plan was successful.  We should have known something was up when Albus kept reminding us of how cultured and wonderful New York would be for the children this time of year."

"Yes you should have but I won't protest.  You ready, Cherish?"

"Yep."  She walked over to him still in her clothes from the day before as she had not brought a change of clothing along with.

"Let's take you home so you can shower and change.  I have to work today but I'm sure Harry won't mind watching you while I'm gone.  You can bond."

"Can I come visit?" asked Joel.

"Sure!" said Cherish at the same time Draco said, "Absolutely not."

"I'll be over, Cher," promised Joel, giving her a thumbs up before he covered his head with a pillow and moaned something that sounded like, "bright lights."

Cherish had showered, dressed, and was seated at the kitchen table with Draco trying to come up with something about England for her to write her report about when Harry returned.  He came in with his bags and smiled at the sight he was greeted by.  Her legs were dangling beneath the table, her chin propped up in her hand, and Draco was writing something in a notebook.  Passing them, Harry took his things to Draco's room before returning and taking an empty seat by them.

"Okay, Harry, you were raised muggle.  Help us come up with something for Cherish to write a report about."

"I have to write a report on something in my heritage," explained Cherish.  "I told my teacher that Daddy moved to New York from England and after she got done being excited over that, she told me to write something about there.  All the girls got really excited.  They wanted to know if Daddy had a British accent and if I had relatives that still lived over there."

"Did they really?" asked Draco, amused.  She nodded.

"You could write about the monarchy," suggested Harry.  "Not exactly the most exciting material but your teacher would probably like that you picked something like government and I can actually help you with that.  It isn't like you could write about your real heritage.  Imagine that.  'Well, my daddy is a wizard and his boyfriend is a wizard, too.  They went to a wizard school in Scotland.  There was this rather bad wizard named Voldemort who tried to kill Daddy's boyfriend and so he's got this scar on his forehead that everyone stares at.'"

Draco snickered.  "A little bitter about the scar, Potter?"

"A little."

"Don't forget the Owl Post.  Everyone loves the Owl Post."

"I don't see why.  That blasted Pigwidgeon didn't want to cooperate this morning when I tried to owl Dumbledore."

"Weasley still has that fuzzy little Snitch?"

"Yes and its very old now.  Starting to fail us terribly just like Errol was.  Still far too excited for its own good, however."

"Or she could write about Quidditch.  You practically have 'Quidditch Through the Ages' memorized by heart.  We could get Ron over here and he could talk about the Chudley Cannons for her.  I did play Seeker, you know."

"And I did catch the Snitch before you every game we played against each other."

"No need to go there, Harry.  I don't want to be terribly embarrassed in front of my daughter.  She still loves me."

"And I'll love you forever, Daddy," she said, giving him a hug.  "I can't wait until you go to work.  Harry is going to have so much to tell me that you won't want me to know.  I can hardly wait."

"I bet you can't, you rotten little girl."

She gave him a big, toothy grin and Harry started to help her with her assignment as Draco went to get ready for work.  After lunch, Harry and Cherish set out for the library to do research and Draco was left for an hour listening to Mr. Garen, the tenant with the apartment above his, tromp around like a pack of wild hippogriffs.  He would've complained but he had a job to get to, so Draco set out for the diner trying to mentally prepare himself for customers while the Weasley's voice hissed in the back of his head about being a server.

"Draco," said Francois as he entered and strutted up to him.  "Zer is a mouse in ze kitchen."

"You said that yesterday, Francois.  There is no mouse."

"You say zat now but will you be so confident when ze mouse comes after you?"

"I'll believe in the mouse when I see it.  How's business today?"  He brushed past Francois and headed behind the counter where Gabrielle was punching in.

"Terrible," said Gabrielle before Francois could say anything.  "Tips are horrible and Francois is scaring everyone else away with his incessant whining about mice."

"Fabulous.  Just what I need to hear when starting a shift.  There is no mouse."

"That's what I told him but he won't listen."

"Zer is a mouse back zere and you two 'ad better find it before it drives away ze rest of ze customers."

"Or maybe you should stop talking about it before you drive away 'ze rest of our customers.'"

"Do not mock me, Draco.  Zis is a very important issue."

"Yes, Francois."

"Do not patronize me.  I will not tolerate patronization.  Ze mouse must be found.  It is a filzy creature and I do not like it 'abitating in my establishment."  He raised a finger during his harangue and began shaking it at Draco.  Gabrielle rolled her eyes as she headed for the staff door.

"I'm going to look for the non-existent mouse.  If by some miracle of God we have a rush of customers, come get me."

"Okay," said Draco, smirking as she disappeared into the back.  He wished he would have been faster.  Then he could be the one looking for alleged mouse while Gabrielle was dealing with Francois.

The day had been much like Gabrielle said.  Only around dinner time was there any sort of rush when Gabrielle had to come out and help serve.  Francois had been so caught up in the madness that he hadn't had the time to mention the mouse to any of the customers.  Tips were terrible and Draco found himself wishing death on many of the customers when he would get stiffed.  Every so often he would find himself itching his fingers toward his pocket where his wand had been placed.  He didn't know how it got there, he certainly couldn't remember putting it there when he got dressed this morning, but it was there all the same.  He couldn't wait to go home and away from Francois.

Turning the doorknob to his apartment, Draco just wanted to hug Cherish goodnight and collapse in bed next to Harry before falling asleep.  All hopes were diminished as he took off his apron, tossed it on the kitchen table, and stared in horror at the scene before him.

Piled in the middle of the living room was the coffee table and on top of it, one of their kitchen chairs.  Joel was standing on top of this makeshift throne, broom in hand, and the broomstick was about an inch away from the ceiling.  Harry seemed to be spotting Joel, his hands up as he rounded the dais in case Joel were to make an unceremonious topple to the ground.  Cherish was seated on the couch, popcorn in hand and giggling at the spectacle occurring in the living room.

"Oh.  Hey, Draco," said Joel, grinning at him.  He paused, cocked his head to the side, and got a very perturbed glare on his face when Mr. Garen could be heard stomping, this time much louder than it had been earlier in the afternoon.  When the stomping ceased, Joel started to bang the ceiling with the broomstick, screaming obscene words, and threatening to call Mr. Davis.

"He's been like this for over thirty minutes now," explained Harry as Draco came up beside him.  "He came over a few hours ago after Cherish and I finished her paper.  We were watching the telly for awhile but then your neighbor was stomping so loud we couldn't even properly hear Spongebob."

"You were watching cartoons?"

"Yeah.  Joel likes cartoons."

"So how did this happen?"

"Well Joel got rather perturbed that he was disturbed during what he claims is the best Spongebob episode ever so he made this little platform and began banging on the ceiling.  They've been going at it ever since.  Back and forth like that.  Mrs. Garen called to yell at us but Cherish told her that when Mr. Garen stopped making so much noise, Joel would stop his retaliation.  Its quite amusing."

"Yeah, I thought Joel's excursions were funny when I first became a part of them, too, but then he started growing science experiments in the kitchen and I got a really bad case of food poisoning."

"I told you not to eat anything that shouldn't be green by nature," said Joel as he banged on the ceiling again.

"Joel, you're going to make a hole in my ceiling."

"Or Mr. Garen will fall through the floor.  Either way, the bastard deserves it.  How do you live here with that man up above?"

"Oh I don't know.  Its something you become accustomed to.  Kind of like living with one Joel Montgomery.  I got used to that, too."

"Hardy har har.  Your boyfriend thought it was funny."

"My boyfriend didn't live with you for three years."

"I like Harry, Daddy," said Cherish, strolling up to him and wrapping her arm around Draco's waist.  "He helped me with my project today and made me dinner.  He told me all about going to school at Hogwarts and showed me some really neat tricks with his wand."

"Did he?"  Draco stole a glance as he smirked at Harry.

"Yeah.  He's really nice, Daddy.  I can see why you love him so much.  He talked about you a lot, too.  I think you should stay together.  It seems like you shouldn't have ever broke up in the first place.  Meredith says that when two people are really in love that they can be soulmates.  She thinks Harry is your soulmate and that you need to marry him otherwise your karma will be off balance.  Meredith says that if you don't get together in this life, your next one will make you soulmates again until you get married."

"Is that so?"  Cherish nodded.  "Well I think its time for you to go to bed."

"I think so, too.  I'm sleepy."

"Then get changed and get into bed."  He lightly tapped her butt as she passed him and went into her bedroom.  "And Joel, I think its time you go home.  Get off my coffee table and put the chair back where it belongs."  Joel scowled at him but did as he was told.  As he was leaving, muttering about being unappreciated, Draco punched numbers into the telephone and waited until someone picked up.  "Yes, Mrs. Garen, this is Draco Malfoy from apartment 1512.  I understand that your husband and my friend, Joel Montgomery, were having a bit of a feud tonight.  I've sent Joel home and I'd appreciate if you'd discontinue stomping on my ceiling as some of us have work in the morning."  He paused.  "Yes Mrs. Garen, thank you for you time."  He hung up the phone and looked at Harry, weary.

"Well aren't you Super Daddy," he said, smirking.  "So who is this Meredith that Cherish speaks of?"

"Meredith is Cherish's best friend.  Her father and mother are both into metaphysical studies.  Not exactly magic but close.  She's always going on about karma and astrology and the stars.  Its like having Sybill Trelawney around all the time except her parents think it brings too much negative energy in the world by talking about death.  The first time I met Meredith, she tried to cleanse my aura."

Harry snickered.  "Fun.  So how was work?"

"Excruciating.  Francois thinks we have a mouse but neither I, Gabrielle, nor anyone else who works there have seen said mouse.  We think Francois is hallucinating which wouldn't be too odd, for him, anyway."

"You lead an interesting life."

"I get along."  Draco forced a smile before crossing the room and sinking into Harry's arms.  He sighed, feeling Harry's arms wrap around him.  "I forgot how good it feels to come home from a long day and have someone hold me."

"Aw," said Harry with a hint of teasing in his voice.  "Has it been a long time since you've been loved?"

"I have Cherish but it's not exactly the same."

"No, I guess it isn't.  You seem tired.  Come to bed.  We'll actually sleep tonight."

"We slept last night."

"A bit," said Harry grinning as he pulled Draco with him and they disappeared into the bedroom.

*~*~*~*~*

**Loved something?  Hated something?  Tell me in a REVIEW or email me at angeldlsm00@hotmail.com **


	11. Adventures with Francois

**Jani****-Chan:  We all love Joel.  We should start a fan club.  I could write a series of stories on Joel alone!  I won't, though.**

**Michiko:  Well, it has been eight years since the 3 air conditioners so I imagine _something happened to them.  Lets just say that Joel took them apart to find out how they worked and Draco had to throw them away and take Joel to the emergency room.  Is that a good explanation?_**

**Grey Malfoy:  I like the word 'spiffy'.  J**

**Dark One Shadowphyre:  I know!  Those are the exact kind of conversations I have with my friends.  Part of the reason I found it funny people were saying the story was unbelievable.  They should hang out with me sometime.  I'll show them unbelievable.**

**Everyone else who reads or reviews. . .thanks!  I appreciate it!  You rock.**

**Dedicated to my sistas, Jenny from the Block and Ace because they actually read this and liked it.  Especially Francois who was created in the image of Michel from Gilmore Girls.  If you don't watch the show, you should.**

**Not JK Rowling.  I don't own Harry Potter or the entire world within. Anything you recognize would belong to her.  Anything you don't would belong to me, including the crack!plot of this trifle of a story.  I am (obviously) making no money off this though if you really want to sue me, I've got $10.00.  Good day.**

*~*~*~*~*

Walking from the bathroom to the kitchen, Draco poured himself a cup of coffee and entered in the living room to sit on the sofa.  He stared out the window and down fifteen stories to the streets of New York crowded with late-night party goers finally heading home and the older folk of the city heading off to work.  Checking the clock, Draco saw he still had a half hour before grabbing his apron and heading to the diner.  As he leaned back into the cushions, he sighed and rubbed his fingers over the porcelain of the cup.

Harry wasn't here at the moment.  He had left over an hour ago to take Cherish out for breakfast before promising to walk her to school.  Yesterday was supposed to be Draco's day off but the diner had been especially busy with tourists and he had been called in leaving Harry and Cherish together for the day.  There was disappointment in him at not being able to spend a day with his daughter and jealousy mixed in with it when he returned home and found out that Cherish and Harry had spent the day together.

Of course they had spent the day together.  What else had he expected them to do?  This green-eyed monster of jealousy was not flattering on him but it did insist on rearing its ugly head.  Sunday afternoons with Cherish in Central Park were a time he had come to look forward to, part of what kept him going during the week.  It was a tradition between the two that started way back when Melody left and Draco found he needed that one day a week to bond with his daughter.

Harry, on the other hand, had been gone from his life for ten years and he found it rather annoying that Cherish was spending more time with him than he was.  It was Harry who had been helping her with her homework.  It was Cherish getting hugs and eating dinner with Harry.  He knew he shouldn't be jealous but he just couldn't help it and then this morning Harry had suggested walking Cherish to school.

Releasing a short laugh, Draco shook his head and drained his cup of the cheap, instant coffee.  He stared at the bottom of the cup, a thin layer of deep brown liquid swimming over the white porcelain unpurified with flecks of pewter.  It was ridiculous to be jealous.  He should be happy they were getting along.  In fact, he was happy they were getting along.  He just didn't want to be forgotten along the way.

Setting the cup in the sink, Draco checked the clock again and sighed.  Lost in thought, the time had passed by without him noticing and he now found it was the designated time for him to set off to work.  He grabbed his apron and keys, shoving the latter in his pocket as he headed for the door.  Shutting off the lights, Draco stepped through the threshold and let the door fall shut behind him as he headed for the diner.

Draco loved the smell of New York in the morning.  There was something about it that pacified him, made him feel as if he were truly home.  It had taken time, but New York had become his home.  It was familiar and more warm than life back in the Malfoy Manor had ever been.  Most people were distant and everyday he would walk past a group of people he knew he would never meet.  It was part of the excitement, the unpredictability, and Draco loved how it kept him guessing.

There was one woman he passed every day.  She carried a cell phone and a briefcase, always dressed in suits, and her heels made a familiar click against the sidewalk.  Draco would nod his head at her in acknowledgment, offer her a small smile, and she would do the same as they passed before continuing on their way.  This had been going on for close to four years.  They never exchanged any words and Draco found that he liked it that way.  It was constant, dependable, and something predictable in a world full of uncertainty, a shred of stability in a city full of chaos.

It was nothing like what he was going through with Harry.  Things were supposed to be dependable, constant.  Life with Cherish had its ups and downs and with the exception of the events that Joel caused almost daily, there were never any real surprises.  Now Harry was back and Draco was torn.  He wanted the old life back but it would never return.  He wanted a new life with Harry but there were so many possibilities, so many chances to get hurt, that Draco wasn't sure he was ready for it.  Ready or not, he had been thrust into this position.  He wished it would leave his mind.

Pushing open the door to the diner, Francois hurried up to him with a plastic cup and shoved it into his hands.  Draco noticed that the sign marked 'CLOSED' was still showing even though they were supposed to be open for a good two hours now.  In the corner sat Gabrielle slumped against the wall with a cigarette dangling from her fingers.  She lifted it to her lips, took a drag, and puffed out a billow of smoke before letting her hand fall to her side once again.

"Francois won't open the diner until we catch the mouse," she said shrugging as she crossed her legs.  "No problem with me.  I'm perfectly content sitting here all day doing nothing even if I _could use the tips."_

Draco snorted.  "What tips?"

"Point taken."  She nodded in agreement as she took another drag from her cigarette.  Coughing, he held a fist to her chest as smoke flowed from her nose and mouth in long wisps.  Draco grimaced at the sight.

"You can't be serious about this."

"I most certainly am," said Francois.  "Gabrielle says she saw it in ze back."

"There is no mouse, Francois," protested Draco.  "Gabrielle didn't see anything.  She's messing with you.  Aren't you, Gabrielle?"

"Yeah but he doesn't get it."  She shrugged putting her cigarette out.  "Come on, Draco.  Let's go look for the mouse.  If Francois won't open we might as well do something."

"You 'ad better find it," said Francois, lingering in the doorway of the staff door as Draco and Gabrielle wandered down the hall.

"This is ridiculous."

"I know," she said taking the cup from him.  "There's no mouse but he swears he saw it.  I swear, the poor guy's gone loony.  Anyway, I convinced him to open up for lunch but he won't open it a minute sooner unless we come back with the mouse.  Even Francois can't keep his precious diner closed for a full day."

"Right."

"'Ave you found it?" came Francois's voice and Draco laughed as he saw him inching into the kitchen.  The cook, David, was sitting in a folding chair by the fryer rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, we shoved the critter in to the fryer, here," said David.  "Feller put up quite a fight but Draco grabbed the thing by the tail."

"It was a very valiant deed," added Gabrielle.  Draco grinned.

"No thank you necessary.  I'm proud to do my job."

"Do not mock me.  Zis is not a laughing matter.  Zere is a mouse in ze diner and I want 'im found immediately."

"Yes, Francois."

"No mocking me, Draco.  It is not funny, 'umorous, or amusing in any content of ze phrase."

"I understand, Francois."

"I know zat tone of voice.  Zat is ze tone of voice of a man who can't be trusted."

"Don't be ridiculous, Francois."

"I am not being ridiculous.  You look for ze mouse.  Do it now!"

"There is no mouse, Francois."

"Do no patronize me.  Look!"

"Humor him," muttered Gabrielle.  She started wandering around the kitchen, eyes focused on the group.  "Oh dear.  I do not see a mouse anywhere.  I must not be here, I fear."

"Okay, Dr. Seuss," said David.  "I would not eat it in a house.  I would not eat it with a mouse."

Draco snickered.  "Way to bring up mice, David."

"Oops."  He shrugged putting down his newspaper.  "Francois, did you ever stop to think that you're imagining things.  I work back in this kitchen all day and I have yet to see a mouse.  Draco and Gabrielle work all over the place in here and no one has seen this mouse but you.  Doesn't that say something?"

"It says you do not pay enough attention to your jobs and should be looking more carefully around 'ere.  Zere is a mouse in zis diner and just because I am ze only one who 'as seen it does not mean I am imagining it.  You just need to look a little 'arder."

The mouse hunt continued until lunch and at one point, Francois had made Draco crawl around on his hands and knees to look under the cabinets for anywhere alleged mouse could be hiding.  Around 11:30 Gabrielle finally was given permission to open the diner and customers started to fill in, many of them wondering what the delay had been.  Draco had carefully concocted a story about Francois refusing to open until Draco shined his shoes and most customers bought into it.  Even worse than the mouse hunt had been Francois's desperate attempts to lure the creature out of hiding.  He had taken to tying tiny of pieces of cheese on David, Gabrielle, Draco's, and his own shoelaces in hopes that the mouse would go for the bait.  The tiny pieces of cheese bouncing against his shoes was really starting to annoy Draco when at 12:30, Harry entered the diner and sat at the counter.

"If you sit at ze counter you must order somezing."

"Er -"said Harry, "well, I'll have-"

"Do I look like a waiter to you?  I am ze manager, not some common server.  Draco!  Get out 'ere!  You 'ave a customer!"

"Good God, Francois, there's no need to shout," said Draco, coming out of the back and smiling upon seeing Harry.

"Why are you smiling?" demanded the little French man.

"Hey," said Draco ignoring Francois.

"Hey.  If I sit at the counter I have to order something."

"Yeah.  Francois developed that rule a few months ago when he got sick of Joel and he had no money.  He doesn't really enforce it except for with Joel unless he's feeling particularly nasty.  Isn't that right, Francois?"

"Do not mock me.  Zis creature Joel zat you speak of is evil and must be destroyed."

"Can I get you anything?" he asked, wiping a few crumbs off the counter.

"What do you recommend?"

"Nothing from the fryer.  Try a sandwich.  Cheeseburgers are a pretty safe option and David makes them so that they aren't all dried out."

Harry shrugged.  "Sure.  Go for it."

Draco smiled as he scribbled down the order and sent it over the counter to the back.  From the corner of his eye, he saw Francois leering at him, watching his every moved, and Draco smirked as he turned to face him.  "Can I help you, Francois?"

"You can find ze mouse."

"There is no mouse, Francois."

"Mouse?" asked Harry, raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah.  Francois thinks there's a mouse and I spent all morning searching for the alleged and yet non-existent animal.  Check out my shoes."

Leaning over the counter, Draco showed him where Francois had tied the cheese to his shoelaces and he immediately began to laugh.  "Is that cheese?"

"It is to catch ze mouse."

"Francois's idea.  Rather amusing, if not clever.  So what did you do all morning?"

"I dropped Cherish off at school after breakfast and then I spent the morning with Ron, Hermione, and the kids visiting museums.  Tomorrow we're going over the whole museum thing again but I think I might visit Joel instead.  Too much culture gives me a headache."

"You never did get art." 

"No.  I thought I'd come see you for lunch and then I'd pick Cherish up from school and bring her back here.  Joel said he was looking for inspiration in Central Park so I thought I'd unload him of the burden."

"Joel will not be coming by today?" said Francois looking as if Draco had just quit his job.  Harry nodded.  "Zis is ze best day of my life and I will forever remember you as ze one who told me of such good tidings."

"Er - okay."

"Don't mind Francois.  He and Joel aren't the best of friends."

"I understand.  Do you work Saturday?"

"Unfortunately, yes, but I'm off Thursday.  We can spend the day together."

"Great.  Would you mind if I took Cherish with Mione and Ellie on Saturday then?  Mione wants to make it a day on Broadway.  She splurged on four tickets to about three shows but Harper refuses to go and Angie wants to go back to the zoo.  I thought of Cherish right away."

"Sure," he said rather shortly as the small bell dinged behind him.  He whipped around, swiping the plate from the counter, and slammed it down before Harry.

Harry stared at the plate before him and then glanced up at Draco.  "Um - Draco?  Is there something wrong?  Do you not want me to take Cherish with on Saturday?"

"It's fine."

"If it was fine you wouldn't be slamming around dishes with your manager looking at you as if you committed a serious infraction in serving etiquette."  Draco gave an awkward shrug before sending a very pointed glare to Francois.  The French man glared back.

"It's just. . .I don't know.  You've only been here for a few days and I never get to see you.  You and Cherish are always together.  I don't know.  Leave me alone.  I don't want to talk about it."

Harry snorted, pushing his cheeseburger around on the plate.  "Draco, are you _jealous?"_

"Of course not."

"You are.  That's so sweet."

"Sod off, Potter."

Chuckling, Harry leaned across the counter to place a light kiss on Draco's lips.  "You are too cute, Malfoy."

"What is zis?  What is zis!" demanded Francois coming between them.  Harry snickered as he took a bite out of his cheeseburger.

"Is your outburst relating the fact that I was kissed by a man or that I was kissed at all?" asked Draco.  "There are people who find me to be attractive and not just a complete waste of flesh, space, and oxygen."

"'E is your boyfriend?"

"I thought you knew I was bisexual."

"I did, but you are dating?"

"Francois, this is Harry.  My Harry that Joel's been ragging on me about for years."

"Zis is your 'Arry?"

"I like being 'your Harry,'" said Harry, snickering.  "Its nice to feel possessed.  In a manner of speaking, that is."

"I am very pleased to meet you, 'Arry," he said shaking Harry's hand.

"You're pleased to meet someone who loves me?"

"I am pleased to meet someone who 'as scared away Joel."

Draco stifled a laugh at this, shaking his head, and Gabrielle ushered Francois away to attend to a rather annoyed customer.  The rest of the afternoon had been peaceful, Harry returning with Cherish a few hours later and he endured a second round of teasing over his bite from the jealousy bug.  Harry and Cherish had sat at a booth eating ice cream until Draco finished his shift and the three walked back together, Cherish standing between them as they held hands behind her back.

"I can't believe you were actually jealous, Draco," said Harry as they walked into the apartment.

"Me either.  Daddy, I thought you would be happy that Harry and I are getting along."

"I am happy.  I don't know.  Harry just came back and I've been so busy with work that I haven't gotten any time with him and I'm missing out on time with you.  I guess I'm just feeling left out."

"You have a job, Draco.  I'm just bumming around the city on holiday.  Cherish is going to be going to school most of the time.  We'll have plenty of time together.  Even more if our relationship doesn't end with the holiday."

"Just so you know, Daddy, I like Harry.  I hope you stay together."

"Thank you, babe, for that sentiment.  I'll keep that in mind."

They had barely sat down when the door to the apartment flew open and Joel staggered in, notebook in hand and pen in mouth.  He kicked the door shut with his foot and spit the pen out onto the counter.  The notebook dropped beside it as he climbed onto the stool without explanation and proceeded to jot down notes as if the dramatic entrance had never occurred.

"Hey, Joel," said Draco at length.

"Hold on," he replied, making a few more notes.  "Okay."  He shut the notebook, capped the pen, and turned to stare at him.  "I love New York.  More specifically, I love Central Park."

"What are you doing here?  Don't you have books to be writing?"

"No time.  No time.  Besides, I need a break from Morgan Straker when I've got the real thing."

"I see.  So why are you here?"

"I had to tell you.  It was so great.  I had another one of my brilliant, intellectual thoughts."

"I can hardly wait."

"You see, I was writing in my journal.  You know, observing people-"

"Observing people?" said Harry.

"One of Joel's favorite activities.  I usually go with him.  We became observation buddies when I moved in with him.  He sits in public places and watches people while he records his thoughts.  Feelings.  In a nutshell, observations.  He claims it puts a more realistic perspective on his characters."

"I see.  So you were observing people."

"Yeah.  I was observing people and there was this shopping bag lady in the park.  You know, one of those old smelly ladies who feeds the pigeons and has about a million cats following her around while she pushes a cart full of junk.  It got me to thinking.  Why do these old ladies wander around as if they have no money?  I mean, you think they're homeless or at least very poor, but then where did they get the money to buy all those cats?  And say those cats are strays.  Where does she get the money to feed them?  And even if you say that they eat out of garbage cans, how can she afford to still feed the pigeons?  I think that the shopping bag lady is the most recent enigma of society.  I can add it to my list."

"List?" said Harry.

"Yeah.  Joel's got this list of people that he thinks are enigmas of society.  Garbage men.  Janitors.  Pool men.  Things like that."

"Right.  Like, how does one become a garbage man?  Is it something you just fall into?  Is there any kind of training required?  Is there a license you need to operate the garbage truck?  I'm sure there must be besides a regular standard license."

"You see," said Draco.  "Enigma of society."

"Exactly my point.  Draco, it amazes me how well you understand."

"Sometimes I amaze myself."

They had dinner with Joel gracing them with his presence after explaining Samantha and the kids had gone to her mother's for the evening.  She and Joel had a recent falling out as, apparently, it was okay for Samantha to be friends with him but to married to him was quite a different situation.  Though they had been married for seven years, she still wouldn't accept them as a couple and he liked to stay as far away from Samantha's mother as possible.

It was late in the evening when Joel was about to leave as they sat before the television.  Draco was nestled in Harry's arms while Cherish, already dressed in her pajamas, leaned against Draco.  It was the flapping of wings and the clicking at the window that grabbed their attention and Draco turned his attention to the glass.

"What is that thing?" asked Joel.  "It looks like a tennis ball."

"Pig!" shouted Harry nudging Draco and Cherish to get up.  They both obliged as Harry opened the window and the small owl fluttered in, dropping to an empty chair after flying a few laps around the room.

Joel almost jumped up and down in excitement.  "Oh my God, is that an owl?  Does it have a letter?  I can't believe I'm watching the Owl Post!  This is so much better than the levitating salt and pepper shakers."

"Yes, well, I told you that was pathetic," said Harry as he untied the letter from Pigwidgeon's leg.  He set a small dish of water before the exhausted owl and gave it a loving pet before opening the parchment.

"Dumbledore?" asked Draco.  Harry nodded.

"He's more than thrilled that you're well and that we're back together.  Old man's pretending he has no idea what I'm talking about in my accusations of claiming he set up the whole operation but I feel that if he were saying it to our faces, there would be a glimmer in his eyes."

Draco took the parchment from him, glancing down at the words as he rubbed the pads of his fingers over the material.  Joel was inspecting Pigwidgeon with Cherish, both extremely excited to be experiencing the Owl Post firsthand.

"It's been so long since I've felt parchment," he remarked with a short, sardonic laugh.  Harry gave him a small smile before wrapping his arms around his waist and resting his head on Draco's shoulder.  "Its been so long since I've written with a quill.  I'm used to notebooks and ballpoint pens now.  Can you imagine?  Me?  Thinking a quill would feel foreign."

"Can I see the parchment?" asked Joel, now creeping up on them with Cherish close behind.  Their eyes were fixated on the object in his hands and he laughed as he handed it over to them for inspection.  "Fascinating."

"Have you thought about coming back?" whispered Harry once Joel and Cherish became engrossed with the parchment.

"I - well, of course.  But. . .I just couldn't, Harry.  I have a life here.  And it isn't just me anymore.  Its Cherish, now, too."

"It isn't like we'd leave her behind.  I'm not asking for an answer right now but maybe you can think about it.  You, me, and Cherish living in Hogsmeade.  Or even Muggle London.  You could go home."

"New York is my home."

"England is your home, too.  Just think about it, Draco.  For me?  Consider coming home."

"Okay," said Draco in a soft but strangled whisper and he forced a smile to his face when Cherish turned to him, grinning as she held a tiny, ripped piece of parchment.

*~*~*~*~*

**Loved something?  Hated something?  Tell me in a REVIEW or email me at angeldlsm00@hotmail.com **


	12. A Big Bird

**Michiko:  Bag ladies bring people together**

**Moonlight Yellow:  Yes indeed.  Gotta love them French.**

**Temptress:  I'm imagining the ministry would take the manor because Lucius would cut Draco out of any rights as an hier.**

**Bean:  Feel free to be bratty.  It inflates my ego.  *j/k***

**Goddess of insanity and pauru: Thank you for asking people to read my story.  It saves me the trouble of having the spread the word myself.**

**Bienfoy:  I love your name!  Okay – er – recomposing myself.  I understand avoiding cleaning your bedroom.  I just did that yesterday after avoiding it for two weeks.  **

**Grey Malfoy:  Once again, the bag lady brings people together.**

**El:  Wow!  I read the beginning of your review and I felt like I was reading the inside of a Stephen King book where they put all the words critics used to describe his novels. . .er – okay. . . **

**Dark One Shadowphyre:  Francois is my hero.**

**Anyone else who read and/or reviewed, thank you.  You are insane (as is this story) and it is more than I deserve. **

**Not JK Rowling.  I don't own Harry Potter or the entire world within. Anything you recognize would belong to her.  Anything you don't would belong to me, including the crack!plot of this trifle of a story.  I am (obviously) making no money off this though if you really want to sue me, I've got $10.00.  That and you don't understand what holiday spirit means.  Good day.**

**Forgive my errors, for I hate spellcheck.**

*~*~*~*~*

Three weeks had passed since Harry's arrival and every day that went by was a reminder to Draco that he had one less day to think about Harry's offer.  He wanted him to pack up his life here in New York and move clear across the ocean back to England, back to the old life.  At first Cherish had been an excuse, a rather big one in the back of his mind.  As the days progressed, however, he saw how close his daughter and boyfriend were growing.  They were becoming attached to one another and Draco was certain that Cherish would have no objections to returning to England.

It wouldn't be the same.  He kept telling himself that over and over again, but a small voice inside his head reminded him that he didn't want it to be the same.  Things had been far too messy and complicated before but now they might be able to work.  In a time where Voldemort didn't exist, Draco could see just how possible things were and it scared him.  Going back was returning to something he had long tried to forget; something he had tried to run from.  For Cherish, it was a new adventure.  It was starting over and though she loved her life in New York, Draco knew that should would persuade him to go if she knew about the offer.  There was so many new possibilities for her and she wanted to learn them all.  For him, it was a chance to go home.

After the Cherish excuse had vanished because, honestly, he kept hearing Cherish in the back of his mind telling him that she was sick of being his excuse, he had started to try and think up new reasons.  All he could come up with was his own fear.  The person he left in England was not someone he wanted to be ever again.  He didn't want Cherish to know about his past.  He didn't want her to know that he had trained in the dark arts from as early as age seven.  He didn't want her to know that he had fully stood behind Voldemort until his sixth year when Lucius had attacked him, abused him, and Draco saw what power could do; how it could corrupt.

He tried to shroud the memories.  They weren't pleasant and they weren't things that he liked to remember.  By going back to England, there would be no hope in running.  Even having Harry in New York, a constant reminder of what he had been and become, was taking a toll on his weary and beaten soul.  The only problem was, by not going back, he would probably lose Harry.  He doubted that Harry would want to move to New York.  His life was, and had always been since his fifth year, grounded in the wizarding world, Hogsmeade specifically.  Draco could never ask Harry to leave everything he knew and the only place he ever felt comfortable.  Harry was happy in Hogsmeade.  The difference with Draco was that no matter where he went, he never seemed to be truly happy unless he was in Harry's arms.

A long distance relationship would never work and Draco would never try it anyway.  Harry hadn't offered him a chance to go home.  Harry had offered him a chance to be together forever; the three of them living together as a family.  It was a picture in his mind that Draco adored.  There was nothing he could want more than bringing the two people who mattered most together into a family.  His fears kept him back, unable to commit not to Harry, but to returning and becoming not Draco as he was in New York, but Malfoy.

He wiped the fog off the mirror and grimaced at the perspiration collected on his hand.  Looking into the mirror before it fogged up again and hid his image, Draco had seen the weary face of himself.  He had changed so much.  He looked older, more mature, and it was obvious that he had been through a lot.  Draco was still not even thirty but the fine lines in his face formed from frowning for so many years made him appear much older.  The wet strands of his platinum hair hung before the steel grey of his eyes, hiding them from view.  Draco didn't mind.  He couldn't look himself in the eye anyway.

Wrapping a towel around his waist, Draco opened the door to the bathroom and felt the cool air hit against his bare chest.  Cherish was sitting on the floor in her pajamas, a bowl of cereal sat before her and cartoons were playing on the television set.  Behind her he could see Harry seated, a hairbrush in his hand as he pulled it through Cherish's hair.  Draco leaned against the frame smiling at the scene before him.  He wanted it to be like this forever but there was only two weeks left before the decision had to be made.  Time was running out and Draco didn't like it one bit.

"Hey," said Harry, noticing him standing there.  "What are our plans for today?"

"Well its Sunday so I have off," said Draco toweling off his hair.  "I thought Central Park, movie, ice cream.  Sound good?"

"Works for me.  Cher-Bear?"

Draco smiled at the nickname Harry had given Cherish.  At first it drove him crazy but as time went on, it was beginning to grow on him.

"That would be fun.  I already finished my homework yesterday.  Harry helped me."

"Did he?" asked Draco.  He could see Harry slightly blush before pushing his glasses up his nose and running a hand through his continuously shaggy mop of black hair.  "You two are becoming very close, aren't you?"

"Yeah," said Harry, softly.

"Harry's great, Daddy.  I see why you love him so much."

Draco smiled.  "Yeah.  I gotta get dressed and have breakfast but then we can head out.  Its getting rather warm out.  Maybe we can toss the ball around a bit."

"Sure," said Cherish, an avid fan and player of softball.  "You'll play with us, won't you, Harry?"

"I probably won't be any good but I'd be delighted."

Draco headed for the bedroom and shut the door behind him.  He could hear Cherish and Harry's voice through the door turn to undistinguishable murmurs.  He sighed, running his hand through his hair, and then began to get dressed.  For a long time he lay on his bed running a hand along the soft cotton of his t-shirt.  His thoughts rested solely on the two people sitting in the living room.  Draco didn't know what he was going to do.

When he returned to the living room, he saw that Harry had been french braiding Cherish's hair and he was just securing it with a hairband upon Draco's emergence.  They both still had to get dressed but they had already eaten so Draco went straight to the kitchen and began rummaging through the cupboards.  Grabbing a pop tart, he decided to skip the toaster and wandered back over to the couch where Harry was handing Cherish a mirror.

"Well, Cher-Bear?  How did I do?  Was my performance satisfactory?"

"You did good," she said, looking into the mirror she was holding which reflected back to the one Harry held so she could see the back of her head.  "Daddy does it better, though.  He does my hair really good, though, so I didn't expect you to be better than Daddy."

"Really," said Harry dryly as he looked at Draco with mirth dancing in his emerald eyes.  Draco scowled at him and took a bite of his pop tart.

"Yeah.  Daddy does my hair better than some of the girls' moms at school.  A lot of the girls pity me cause I don't have a mom but I tell them that my Daddy is better than any mom."

Harry smirked as she stood up and began heading for her bedroom to get changed.  He noticed that Draco had stopped eating and was now picking at the part of the pop tart around the frosting.  His eyes were focused on his hands, refusing to look up and meet Harry's, but there was a hint of a smile on his lips.  Harry covered them with his own.

"That was sweet what she said about you, don't you think?"

"Well its true.  She doesn't need a mum.  She's got me."

"I'm going to go get changed, okay?"  Draco nodded, still not looking at him.  With a soft, almost sad, smile, Harry left the living room area for the bedroom they had been sharing.  Draco stared at the hands on his watch and awaited their return, a few precious minutes left to himself before the mask had to go back on and everything was supposed to be right in the world.

~*~

"Why does stuff like that always happen?" asked Cherish staring at the ground.  Draco looked over to see her gripping her ice cream cone, scowling at the ground, and he saw that her ice cream had fallen off, now laying in a pile of melting chocolate syrup on the pavement.

"Joel would probably tell you it was one of life's great mysteries but I've come to believe that it's just dumb luck."

"Meredith says it's karma coming back at me."

"Meredith says everything has to do with karma."

"I know.  It's what makes the world go 'round."

Harry snickered.  "Your friend Meredith sounds like a very interesting individual."

"She is but I think she spends too much time reading.  She needs to socialize with people that aren't in books otherwise I feel that she will become a recluse.  Then who would play with me?"

"I would."

"Thank you, Harry.  You are rather enjoyable company, though I don't want to play softball with you again.  You're vicious.  You almost took my eye out."

"Almost took your eye out," said Draco, rubbing at his wrist where Harry had hit him.  "I'm lucky we put ice on it right away.  Its swelling considerably and if we hadn't, I'd probably have a welt the size of a softball by now."

"Oh come off it," said Harry.  "I wasn't that bad."

"Yes you were," the two Malfoys chorused, smirking at each other.

"It was a brutal attack on both me and my Daddy.  I expect an apology."

"I'm sorry, Cher-Bear.  Draco?  Well. . .you deserved it."

"How did I deserve it?"

"I don't know.  You just did."

Cherish grinned as she threw her ice cream cone away.  "Daddy and I accept your apology."

"I don't know what you're talking about," muttered Draco.  "I didn't get an apology."

"Was I really that bad?"

"Yes," the both said.

"You were raised muggle," said Draco.  "Shouldn't you know how to throw a softball?"

"I do know how to throw a softball.  Just not very good, apparently."

"Apparently," drawled Cherish and Harry stared at her for a moment in shock.  "What?"

"You sounded just like Draco for a moment."

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree," she replied.

"Softballs, however. . ." said Draco.

"Fine.  No more softball.  One day, Cherish, I'm going to have to take you to the wizarding world.  You'd love Quidditch."

Her eyes brightened up at this and her grudge against Harry for the brutal softball attacks was forgotten.  Cherish linked arms with Harry, attaching herself to his side as she tugged on his arm.

"You'll let me come see Quidditch one day?" she asked.

"Of course."

"Harry, do you think I'll be able to go to Hogwarts one day?"

"Probably.  You're a half-blood.  If you weren't, you'd be a squib."

Draco snorted grabbing their attention.  "Can you imagine?  A Malfoy a squib?"

Harry chuckled at this.  "Your father would die of embarrassment."

"That would be the second time.  Weasley already killed my father from humiliation when I was living as a muggle waiter."

"Ah that's right.  Well, you can never have too many deaths planned for Lucius Malfoy."

"I suppose not."

They returned to the apartment and after dinner, settled in to watch television.  Draco's focus was directed anywhere but at the television, his eyes focused on the book in front of him but he wasn't reading the words.  In fact, they were blurring before his eyes into squiggles without any sort of definition and he was certain that Harry noticed Draco hadn't turned the page in over twenty minutes.  If he had, however, Harry never said anything but he had started to massage the tense muscles in Draco's back and neck, kneading them gently with his hands.

As Draco was beginning to relax and the words were swimming back into letters instead of blots of ink, the door to the apartment flew open and Joel sauntered in.  Grabbing a juice box from the refrigerator, Joel sat down on one of the stools at the counter and began to drink.

"To what do we owe the pleasure this time?" said Draco.

"Sam and I are in a fight," he replied.  "What is this?"

Cherish looked over to see him holding up a small, rectangular card.  "That's my student I.D. for next year.  Don't look at my picture.  It's awful."

"We teased her about it all day yesterday after it came in the mail," explained Harry.

Ignoring her request, Joel turned it over and began to snicker.  "Okay, this just proves how awful the technology in that school is.  They think they're so fancy taking the pictures with digital cameras, scanning them into the computer, but somebody has got their color balance off.  You can never get a student I.D. at any school around here without your picture coming out red.  It's like, look at Cherish.  She's white as a ghost.  These cards make her Malfoy skin look like she spent the summer at the reservation with Chief Whitefeather and a lack of sunblock."

"Cute, Uncle Joel," she said, snatching the card away from him and taking it to the safety of her room.

"So what did you and Sam fight about?" asked Draco.

"Okay, there was this big bird. . ."

"A what?" said Draco.

"Just let me explain.  It's not as crazy as it sounds."

"Yeah, okay."

"No, really.  See, I was cleaning the apartment for Sam so I had the windows opened.  I'm already nutsy.  I don't need to be inhaling anymore fumes than I've already got working on my brain.  I was dusting the bookcase and this big bird came flying in the window.  I tried chasing it out but it wouldn't go.  I mean, it flew right at my head.  Almost took out my eye before it flew into a mirror.  Damn bird.  The thing was nuts so I started throwing Sam's books at it to try to get it out.  Well, eventually the bird hopped, not flew mind you, hopped, out the balcony door before taking off again.  Sam's mad cause I ruined a lot of her books.  She asked me why I couldn't be normal."

"There was a big bird," repeated Draco.  Harry bit back a laugh.

"Yes," he said, exasperated.  "It was a very large bird."

"And now you and Sam are fighting."

"Ridiculous, isn't it?"

"A bit.  Well, we need to turn in.  Some of us have jobs in the morning.  Joel, feel free to sleep on the couch."

"Thanks," he muttered as he took a sip of his apple juice.

"Sorry about the bird," said Harry, fighting the smirk that wanted to come over his face as he followed Draco into the bedroom.  Joel grunted a reply as Harry disappeared behind the door.  Once out of earshot, Harry collapsed on the bed and began laughing, Draco watching him with a cocked eyebrow as he undressed for bed.  "A big bird.  Where did you find this guy?"

"Classifieds," replied Draco.  "Makes you think twice about finding a roommate in a newspaper, doesn't it?"

"Kind of.  I can't believe you were roommates with him for years.  He's your best friend."

Draco smiled.  "Yeah, he is.  Of all the people to make friends with.  I never had a best friend before New York.  Crabbe and Goyle certainly can't be counted as friends.  You were my boyfriend.  The closest I had to a best friend was Hermione back in seventh year.  As soon as I move to New York I find that moron and what happens?  I can't get rid of him."

"You don't want to get rid of him.  He's great.  You love him, man.  You kept him around for ten years."

"I know," Draco said, sighing.  "That's the sad part.  He's so crazy but I love him like a brother.  I mean, he drives me nuts, but I'm glad that it was him that I found when I went looking for an apartment to live in."

"Yeah, well, the gang from Hogwarts should see you now.  Waiter and best friend to a muggle writer who does things like throwing books at big birds and bangs brooms on the ceiling in a fight of noise with the neighbor upstairs."

"And that's just what you've been here for.  You missed things like gum-sticking devices and the man-made eggshell."

"Man-made eggshell?" asked Harry, cocking an eyebrow.

"Let's put it this way:  Joel used to always wonder what it would be like to live inside an eggshell.  He doesn't wonder anymore."

Harry snickered.  "Where does he come up with this stuff?"

"Unknown.  You know what the really scary part about it is?"

"Hm?"

"This was the second day I lived with him."

"Gods, I can only imagine it.  Here you come fresh out of Hogwarts and you meet this guy who seems nice enough but kind of strange.  You're trying to adjust to being an muggle, much less an American, and this guy decides to tell you that he's always wondered what it would be like to live inside an eggshell.  Why don't you try it?"

Draco snickered.  "That was kind of how it went.  Joel is very odd."

"Indeed."  Harry climbed into bed, pulled back the covers and patted the spot beside him.  He grinned as Draco crawled across the mattress and slid beneath the blankets next to him.  Harry felt cold and he sighed as he felt Draco's warmth press up against him.

Wrapping an arm around Draco, Harry cradled him in his arms and it wasn't long until Draco's breathing evened, his chest rising and falling in a steady calculated rhythm.  With a slight shudder, it was confirmed to Harry that Draco was asleep and he brushed back the platinum hair that shrouded his forehead.  Placing a kiss to the skin there, Harry nuzzled his nose into Draco's cheek.

Time was running out.  He had two weeks until he was expected back in Hogsmeade and Draco had yet to give him an answer.  Part of Harry felt it was unfair to ask him to leave.  If truth be told, most of Harry didn't think he'd do it but a small sliver of hope gripped at his heart still.  Draco had a life here.  His daughter had a life here and it was unfair to ask either one to leave.  For Cherish, it would only hold new beginnings but for Draco, Harry was asking him to walk back to a life he had hated.  He felt guilty but he couldn't lose him again.

Harry removed his glasses and placed them on the table next to the bed.  "I love you, Malfoy," he whispered, cradling Draco's body closer to his own as he stared at the clock and the blurry red numbers flickered to midnight.

*~*~*~*~*

**Er – okay.  The funny thing about this chapter is that it actually happened to me.  The big bird thing.  That actually happened to me and my sister, Jennifer.  It was a big-ass bird, too, and it flew right at my head.  Except we don't know how it got in.  I was going down the basement stairs to get the iron in the cellar-way and I heard this flutter so I look to the side and there's this bird sitting there.  I run upstairs, shut the door, lock it, and start ironing, wondering how I'm going to get rid of this bird.  Next thing I know, the bird flies _up through the vent and is flying at my head because I'm standing right in front of the window.  I duck, it hits the window, and I ran up the stairs like the pussy I am leaving my sister to chase it out of the front door.  It actually __hopped out, too.  Not flew, but hopped.  Alas, I thought Joel might find the situation as traumatic as I did._**

**Loved something?  Hated something?  Tell me in a REVIEW or email me at angeldlsm00@hotmail.com **


	13. Sylvester and Southern Brew Tea

**Canceria****:   I'm very glad you think I handled it well.  I thought so, too.  I do enjoy being bitchy and sarcastic (some of my best qualities, in my opinion) but I enjoy being quirky as well.  What can I say?  I'm versatile like that.**

**Deirdre Riordan:  I love happy endings so you need not worry about that.  This guy from your school sounds wonderful.  Joel is the most popular character of this story (for obvious reasons).  You can join the fan club if you wish.**

**SIAS:  Sorry about your bruise and I won't call you insane.  Okay, I will, but it's okay.  I'm insane, too.**

**Kelly:  Oh gods, I laughed so hard when I read that thing about the squirrel.  You know, the best thing about sharing my bird story in the last chapter _has to be that now everyone is sharing their strange animal stories with me.  I love it!_**

**Fate's Child:  Feel free to talk about coughing your throat raw in my reviews.  I talk about vomiting in mine.**

**ClarkeRaven:  Francois is awesome, isn't he?  I love that crazy, little French man.**

**Evil Laughter:  Hey, you.  I'll knock off Sam and send Joel to you in the mail.**

**Thanks to everyone else who read and/or reviewed.  I appreciate it and would thank you each individually if I had the time.  However, I don't, and I'm sure you'd rather be reading the chapter.**

**Not JK Rowling.  I don't own Harry Potter or the entire world within. Anything you recognize would belong to her.  Anything you don't would belong to me, including the crack!plot of this trifle of a story.  I am (obviously) making no money off this though if you really want to sue me, I've got $10.00.  Good day.**

*~*~*~*~*

"Well?" said Ron, as Harry dropped to the hotel bed and stretched out over the cheap comforter.

"He still hasn't answered me," said Harry.

"Harry, we leave next week," said Hermione.  "Six days and he still hasn't given you an answer!"

"I don't think he's coming."

"Oh, Harry," she said covering her mouth with her hand.  "Are you sure?"

"You can never be sure with Draco but. . .I don't know.  He hasn't given me an answer yet and I keep reminding him that I'm leaving soon.  I never just come out and say anything-"

"Oh, of course not."

"-But sometimes I think that I should.  He's been so distant.  He knows I'm going and Cher has just been a wreck about it but he acts like he doesn't even care.  It's like he's prepared to just let me walk out of his life a second time but I don't know if I can do it.  If it comes down to it. . .I don't know if I can leave him."

"But, Harry," said Ron, "if he won't come with, you obviously aren't important enough -"

"It's not my matter of importance in his life, Ron.  I mean, what would you do if you were him?  I'd stay put right where I was.  Think of all he's been through.  His life isn't back in England anymore.  It's here in New York.  He has a daughter that he raised here.  All of his friends are here.  He's got a job and a place to live.  Ten years, Ron.  Think of all the time that passed since we graduated.  All of that time he spent here."

"I see your point, but Harry, not everything, more pointedly, not _everyone is here."_

"No, but do you realize what I'm even asking him to do?  I didn't when I asked him.  If I had, I don't think I would have ever done so.  Being with him again after so long. . .I got caught up in him.  By asking him to go back. . .that's a life he wanted to forget so badly that he came here.  In New York, he isn't just Malfoy, Lucius's son and the Slytherin King of Jerks.  I mean, it would be like me choosing to be a muggle.  No one would look at me as the Boy-Who-Lived, and after being accustomed to that for ten years, I don't know if I could leave it.  Or like you not having to be another one of the red-haired poor Weasley clan who loves muggles too much.  Or Hermione not being the insufferable Gryffindor know-it-all."

"Point made," said Ron, softly.  "But you want him to come, don't you?"

"For my own selfish reasons, yes.  For Draco -"

"You don't know," finished Hermione.

"No.  I don't."

~*~

The bell to the diner rang and Draco looked up from the counter he was washing off to see Cherish running in, Harry and Joel strolling along behind her.  She climbed up onto the counter, slid a five at him, and asked for a chocolate sundae.  As Draco passed the order back, Joel and Harry slid in before the counter.

Walking around to them, Draco wrapped Cherish in a hug, kissed her on the forehead, and said, "How was your day?"

"It was great.  Harry and Uncle Joel took me to the zoo with Ellie and then we went on the rides.  We haven't been to the zoo in awhile, Daddy.  Why is that?"

"I don't know.  I guess we just never get around to it."

"Are you 'ere again?" snapped Francois, coming out of the back room and walking over to Joel.

"Sure am.  You know I only come by because it gives you such a tickled pickle to see me."

"Indeed.  Draco, 'ave you been looking for Sylvester?"

"Sylvester?" asked Harry.

"The mouse," explained Draco.  "No, I haven't, but I'm sure Gabrielle is doing a very thorough search of the broom closet as we speak.  Either that or she's smoking again."

"Not in ze restaurant!" he cried, barreling for the staff door.

"He named the imaginary mouse?" asked Harry, once Francois disappeared.

"Yeah.  Apparently he has a softness for the 'Rocky' movies."

"Wait," said Joel, laughing, "he named the mouse after Sylvester Stallone."

"I know.  Don't ridicule him too much.  I've been taking care of it."

There was a loud bang and the staff door opened, Francois emerging looking proud and a rather embarrassed Gabrielle following him. 

"I won't ask questions," said Joel.

"Hey, that's what we usually say about you."

"Shut up, Malfoy."

Draco scowled.  "You've been speaking with Potter too much.  You never call me 'Malfoy.'"

"I never knew it bothered you."

Suddenly, there was a high-pitched, girlish shriek, and Francois leaped up onto the counter pointing at the ground.  "Zere!  Did you see it?  It was ze mouse.  Find 'im!  Find 'im!  Catch Sylvester and incinerate 'im!"

"Actually, I did see him," said Gabrielle, gaping as she walked over to where the mouse had disappeared inside the counter.  "Draco, come see this."

He crossed to her, crouched down, and from the awkward position beneath the stools they could see a small, mouse-sized hole leading into the hollow space beneath the counter.  Draco suppressed a laugh as he looked to Gabrielle and then Francois hopping up and down on the counter, whimpering about mice and razor-sharp teeth.

"Would you look at that," he muttered.  "Old Francois wasn't going batty after all.  There _is a mouse hole."_

"Catch 'im!  Catch 'im!" Francois bellowed.  "Catch Sylvester before 'e gets away!"

"You're scared of him.  You're scared of mice.  That's so cute," said Gabrielle grinning.

"Oh it's just a little mouse you baby," Draco chastised as he wandered over to the window behind the counter that looked into the kitchen.  "Hey, David.  Good news.  Francois isn't nuts and we've really got a mouse in the house.  We need bait to lure the poor creature out of his hole."

"Who'd have thunk," muttered David as he handed Draco a small block of cheese.  "Is that Francois dancing on the counter?"

"Yeah.  He's afraid of mice, it would seem."

David snickered as Draco headed back to where Gabrielle sat on the ground.  Placing the cheese by the hole, Draco grabbed a plastic cup in preparation to trap Sylvester once he emerged from his hiding spot.

"'As 'e come out yet?  He is in zere, I know it!"

"Calm yourself, Francois, or you're going to die from a stroke.  He's not coming out."

"Your face must 'ave scared 'im away."

"Eh ha ha heh," said Draco in a forced laughter.  "Funny."

"Come on, Francois," said Gabrielle.  "Get down here.  He's only been coming out when you're around for weeks.  Maybe he likes you."

"Or maybe he likes that cheesy smelling cologne he wears."

"I will do no such zing, and Draco, if you continue in zis fashion you will be fired."

"Yes, but then who would catch the mice for you?  You could always hire Joel, I suppose."

Francois stared at Joel in horror that the suggestion was even uttered.  "No zank you, I am perfectly capable of catching ze mice on my own, oui?"

"No, I don't think so, but if you want to prove yourself, Sylvester still hasn't come out yet."  Draco smiled sweetly.

"Wait," said Gabrielle.  "I think I see a nose."

"Catch 'im!  Catch Sylvester!"

Sure enough, a small nose was peaking out of the hole and a small brown mouse emerged, crawling over to the cheese and taking it into its paws.  Casting the plastic cup aside, Draco picked him up and cradled him in his hands, pulling the mouse close to his body and stroking the shivering creature.  He walked over to Francois and held out the creature, but Francois leaped fully over the counter and went running.

"Baby," said Joel taking the mouse out of Draco's hands.

"Really," added Gabrielle dusting off her hands, knees, and the front of her shirt.  "There was actually a mouse in the diner.  Can you believe it?"

~*~

Draco liked the sound of his shoes against the cement when he walked home at night.  He liked the lights from signs and traffic, the hum of a multitude of engines, and the loud voices of those just getting into their prime when he winded down from a late night at work.  Most of all, he loved the city and walking back to apartment 1512.  It was a habit, part of his daily routine, and Draco loved every minute of it.

He did love the city, but he was reminded of things he used to love, things that he still held dear in his mind and yearned to do again.  Draco liked the sound of his robes swishing around him when he walked down a particularly quiet hallway at night.  He liked the sound of chatter that floated through your ears when walking down Diagon Alley.  He liked the smell of Flourish and Blotts, all those wizard texts confined in one place.  He even liked the Apothecary, the Potions ingredients fascinating him.  He liked the lighting in the Leaky Cauldron.  He liked the feeling of the wind brushing against your face when you were up on a broomstick and though he hated to admit it, he liked the feeling of the Snitch clasped in his palm after an especially excruciating game.

When all things were considered, he loved both worlds.  If he went back, he would miss the city, but if he stayed, he would lose Harry.  Back in the wizarding world there lay only people he had once known in what felt like a far away dream.  There were strange memories with rough edges, blurry lines colliding together like the fuzzy picture on a muggle television screen.  Here he had his job, his friends, and his new life.  Here things made sense and the pictures were clear, crisp in his mind.

Draco couldn't imagine this being one of the last times he'd ever walk home late at night from the diner.  In fact, if he did go, then this would most certainly be the last time he'd walk home late at night from work at all.  New York would fade away.  Would it become a distant, hazy memory like England had become?  Would Joel, Samantha, Gabrielle, and Gwen fade into the background of his mind like so many people from Hogwarts had?

And what would happen when he arrived in Hogsmeade?  People weren't just going to welcome him with open arms.  A lot of them would probably want answers and he knew they would get a real kick out of knowing just what exactly had become of him.  Word would, no doubt, reach his father eventually, even if he was in Azkaban.  That was something Draco didn't even want to think about.  What would he do in Hogsmeade?  He had been gone for so long, never using his wand.  What would happen to Cherish?  She was still in primary school and it would be a few years until he knew whether she would be going to Hogwarts or not.

There were very important decisions for Draco to make and his head hurt very much when he turned his key in the lock and was surprised to see that it was already open.  Harry and Cherish were supposed to be spending the night in a mega-sleepover, or slumber party according to Cherish, at Ron and Hermione's hotel room so that Cherish could be with Harper and Ellie before they left.  All he wanted was some Tylenol and his bed when he pushed open the door, preparing for the worst, but all he found was Joel rummaging through the refrigerator and he left out a sigh.

"I thought someone broke in, you asshole.  No one was supposed to be here tonight."

"Sorry, but I thought you could use some company.  Look what I brought."

"Southern Brew Iced Tea?" asked Draco, reading the label.

"Yeah.  Sam's mom sent two gallons to us from her vacation in Pennsylvania.  It's supposed to taste just like, well, southern brewed iced tea.  Sam's been raving about it.  I thought we could try a glass together."

"Yeah.  Okay."  Draco tried to smile as he sat across from where Joel stood.  Joel poured him a bit of the tea and slid the glass across the table.  Draco was starting to feel like he'd entered a bar.

"So what's troubling you?"

"What makes you think I'm troubled?" asked Draco as he downed the tea, wincing.  "I like it better with lemon."

"Yeah?"  Joel tried some of the tea and scrunched up his face.  "Me too.  Must be a New York thing.  I don't know.  Sam loves it."

Sliding his glass back across the table, Draco dropped his head into his hands.  Joel refilled it with tea and slid it back.  "It's the whole Harry thing."

"He leaves in five days, doesn't he?"  Draco nodded and took another gulp of the tea, downing it in one swallow.  "What are you going to do about that?"

"I don't know.  He. . .he asked me to move back to England with him."

"Really?  _When?"_

"I don't remember.  Right when he showed up.  I've been thinking about it ever since."

Joel bit his lip as he refilled Draco's glass and slid it across the table.  "Heavy.  Are you going?"

"I don't know.  That's just the thing.  I've been running for so long and he's the only thing I've got that would make me go.  My job's here.  My life is here.  My daughter is here.  You're here."

"Me?  I matter?"

"Of course you matter, you dolt.  You're my best friend."

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"Oh. . .well.  I didn't know you cared.  I just thought you put up with me because I wouldn't go away."

"Trust me, if I didn't like you, you would know it.  You certainly wouldn't know about Harry, that's for sure."

"Do you miss England?  Being a wizard and going to all those wizard places?"

"Well, yeah.  It was my home.  I grew up there.  It's still a part of me."

"I think you should go."

Draco missed the glass as Joel slid it to him and it shattered on the floor.  Draco stared at the tea stained carpet and Joel rounded to clean the mess up as Draco sat, staring in shock.

"Why?" he finally said.

"Why what?"

"Why do you think I should go back?"

Joel smiled as he threw away the pieces of glass.  "It's the way you look at each other.  The way you get when he touches you.  You're so much happier now than you were before he showed up here.  If you let him go, you're going to regret it.  If I'm really your best friend, and I have to let you know that you're mine, then you need to trust me.  I think you should go."

"I want to go," whispered Draco.

"Then you should go.  What are you so afraid of, anyway?"

"You don't understand what it was like for me back there, Joel.  My father. . .he always pushed me to achieve my very best, but he was involved in the dark arts.  All Malfoys, at least most of them, have been since as far back as I can trace.  He was feared among many people.  The Malfoy family is a long line.  I'm. . .Father always said I never lived up to what I could have been.  He said I had the potential but I was too lazy to use it.  The only time he ever complimented me was when I was made Head Boy.  Because of the way my father is, all the Malfoys have been, people judge me right away.  I'm Draco Malfoy so I must be evil.  But here, when I met you, you didn't care if I was a Malfoy.  Hell, you thought my name was weird and it was like Christmas morning for you.  Strange looking kid with an even stranger name shows up wanting to be your roommate.  No one cared if I was a Malfoy.  No one looked at me like I was going to hex them because my last name was Malfoy."

"So you don't want to go back.  Because of the way a bunch of pompous, arrogant assholes treat you just because your last name is Malfoy."

"I know it sounds lame but after going from one extreme to the other, I found that I liked myself more when I wasn't handicapped by being a Malfoy.  Harry. . .he was everything to me in my seventh year.  It was so strange because I had hated him for so long.  Harry fucking Potter, the bloody Boy-Who-Lived.  I had to live in his shadow for years.  But then, he came out as a bisexual, and we had something in common.  It was something that people were appalled by.  I thrived on it.  People appalled by the Boy-Who-Lived.  He had a flaw and people were actually noticing it.  But when he started to get jeered at, I started to take their comments to him personally.  I felt like everyone knew about me and since he was, too, he was the one I told when I couldn't hold it in any longer."

"Fuck, Draco, no wonder you kept all the sordid details to yourself.  And I just thought you were being anal retentive about forgetting your ex."

"Yeah, well, no one but Hermione, Ron, and our headmaster ever knew about our relationship.  Harry's the golden boy.  Harry defeated the Dark Lord.  You know what I did?  I supported Voldemort until I was in my sixth year.  It took my father beating me to the point where I almost died when I truly realized just how corrupted power can make you.  I criticized Harry because he wouldn't be my friend, I tore down Ron because he laughed at my name, and I wouldn't leave poor Hermione be for one second because she was muggle-born.  What would people say if they found out that their golden boy loved someone like me?"

Joel gave a short laugh.  "You just want everyone to like you, don't you?"

Draco nodded, miserably.  "Yeah.  Pathetic, isn't it?"

"A little.  Look, not everyone is going to like you.  If you're waiting for everyone to, you'll be waiting a very long time.  There's a lot, and I do mean a lot, of people that despise me.  Want me dead.  Take Francois, for example.  Sam's mom.  Mr. Garen.  Who cares what people think?  So you made some mistakes.  I've made a million.  You were a jerk in school.  Kids are dumb.  They do dumb things.  I still do dumb things.  Remember the jam balloons?"

"I remember."

"You see?  And I'm thirty-two.  You were a kid.  Who cares what people think?"

"I do.  Consider what I am.  A pureblood Slytherin.  A Malfoy.  What are people going to say when I show up as a bisexual with Harry on my arm and a half-blood daughter after living in the muggle world for ten years?"

"They're going to go 'Shit, what the fuck happened to that Malfoy kid?  He looks more like forty than twenty-eight.'  Give it a rest, Draco.  From what you're telling me, you've come a long way.  I think you're looking at this in entirely the wrong perspective.  You took the initiative to not become a Death Eater.  You went to the muggle world and you survived.  You raised a little girl all on your own and I've seen her, Draco.  She turned out beautifully on the outside and inside."

"Thank you," he whispered.

"Really, Draco, I think you should go."

*~*~*~*~*

**Loved something?  Hated something?  Tell me in a REVIEW or email me at angeldlsm00@hotmail.com **


	14. Reunion

**Yes, this is the _final chapter of Life Left Behind.  I know, it's sad, but here it is.  Author's notes at the bottom._**

**Not JK Rowling.  I don't own Harry Potter or the entire world within. Anything you recognize would belong to her.  Anything you don't would belong to me, including the crack!plot of this trifle of a story.  I am (obviously) making no money off this though if you really want to sue me, I've got $10.00.  Good day.**

*~*~*~*~*

Draco Malfoy turned the page of his book only to be interrupted by an incessant beeping coming from somewhere in the back of the flat.  He stood up, about to check what the sound was when a bang was heard at the door, and Draco headed for his newspaper instead.  There was rustling heard in the bedroom as the beeping stopped, replaced with swearing, and he opened to door to retrieve his newspaper.

"Up already?" asked Harry, coming into the living room where Draco had sat back down with his tea and paper.

"I couldn't sleep.  I keep thinking about Cherish.  I miss her."

"I know you do, but she's going to be okay.  We went through this before."  Draco nodded.  "You going to be okay?"  Draco nodded again.  "You don't mind if I leave early, do you?  I have some invoices to go over and Ron's been bugging me about it for ages.  He keeps claiming that I'm too distracted with my love life."

Draco snorted as he unfolded the paper.  "That Weasley prat _would say something like that.  See if Hermione said anything about Cherish.  I want to know how she's doing at school.  I wish she'd write already."_

"Draco, Cher's barely been at Hogwarts.  You took her to the train station two days ago.  The least you could do is let her get settled in.  The poor girl is probably still getting lost trying to find her way between the dungeons and the Ravenclaw common room.  Snape probably isn't making it any easier on her, either, but I'm sure Harper's been a help.  Shame they weren't in the same house."

"My daughter would never be something as lowly as a Gryffindor."

"No, your daughter is a Ravenclaw."

"It's just as well.  I didn't want her to be a Slytherin anyway."

"That's just because you know from personal experience what a rotten bunch the Slytherins are."

"Well there are a few rare sweethearts," he said, winking.

"Yes and it's a shame that you weren't one of them."

Draco scowled, whacking Harry with the paper.  "Honestly, Harry.  I'm heartbroken over my little girl going away from home, do you really have to insult me as well."

"Oh, Draco, you're worse than a woman with PMS."

"And continuing with the insults."

"You know I adore you.  That ring on your finger should be a reminder."

"I know," Draco teased, as he finally unfolded his newspaper and looked down on it.  He felt his mouth go dry and he immediately folded it back up again.  Hesitating, Draco unfolded the paper a second time and ripped out a piece of the headline before shoving it into his pocket.  Harry stared at him refold the paper and drop it into the wastebasket.  "I've got to get ready for work.  Have a good day."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he lied.  "Now go.  You have invoices waiting."

Harry looked hesitant but Draco placed a kiss to his lips, traced his fingers over Harry's cheek, and softly ordered him to get to work before Ron castrated him.  Smiling, Harry had hugged Draco before leaving the flat and the door slammed shut behind him.  Once he was gone, Draco retracted the torn piece of a muggle newspaper and he stared down at it, studying it in hopes of committing the memory to heart.

After contacting the ministry to let them know he wouldn't be in today, Draco searched through the closet behind robes and cloaks for his muggle clothes.  Finding a pair of jeans and a sweater, Draco slid into his clothing before draping a cloak around his shoulders and heading outside.  He considered where to go to kill time, and after careful consideration, he headed down the road to Three Broomsticks.

Sitting near the back of the pub with a mug of butterbeer before him, Draco's mind raced over everything that had happened in the past two and a half years.  Draco had watched the door and waited on an early morning in late June.  When Harry and Cherish had arrived back after a night with the Weasley family, Draco had asked them to sit down and told Harry, very plainly, that it was up to Cherish because, if she wanted to, he would agree to Harry's offer.

At first Harry had sat there, struck dumb as he stared.  Cherish became restless, not knowing what was going on, and Draco explained that Harry had offered for them to come back to England with him.  He explained to her why he hadn't said anything sooner, his apprehension, but that Joel had been the one who finally convinced him to go.  Cherish had exploded, hugging them both and telling them that she thought they should go.  If things didn't go well, they could always move back.

But things _had gone well.  The sight of Draco Malfoy suddenly wandering around wizard places as if he had not been gone for ten years had thrown most people at first.  Cherish by his side had been even more of a shock.  She loved living in Hogsmeade and Draco had to admit that he loved being back.  They both missed New York and talked about it frequently, but they had gone back to visit four times already.  The ocean wouldn't keep Joel away, and he had come over with Samantha and his children three times to visit.  Joel had loved seeing the places he wrote about, and Draco loved showing them to him.  Draco was in his element once again.  That much was clear to Joel, and one night on his last visit, they had stayed up very late sharing stories of their lives.  Draco had ended up crying, hugging Joel, and thanking him for guiding him home to England, to Hogsmeade, and to Harry._

He couldn't get the thoughts out of his mind, only this time, Draco didn't mind.  He loved being with Harry every day and being back at the places of his childhood.  Everything had changed so drastically, but Draco loved being a part of it.  Even those who Draco thought would never be able to accept him had welcomed him in to the fold.  In fact, he and Harry had just had dinner last week with Seamus Finnigan and his wife, Lavender.

The only thing missing was Cherish, who had gone away for her first year at Hogwarts two days ago.  It had been a hard, painful, and teary-eyed parting as Draco clutched to his little girl in the middle of King's Cross not caring who was watching.  For so long they only had each other, and it was difficult for them to say goodbye, even if she was only going away to school and would be back for Christmas holiday.

He hadn't been surprised when Hermione told them she had been made a Ravenclaw.  Draco had been a Slytherin, but he knew he raised her to be different then him.  She was smart, studious and advanced, and part of him thought she was going to be a Gryffindor, or even a Hufflepuff, but all along in the back of his mind he knew she would be made a Ravenclaw.  Most people were surprised, but Draco just smiled and shrugged.  Cherish knew better than to play as dirty as the Slytherins did.

It was very late in the afternoon when Draco finally left the Three Broomsticks.  Finding a dark alleyway, he apparated to just under a tree by a parking lot at a muggle store.  He stayed under the branches, checking his watch and seeing that he had fifteen minutes.  Strolling out and leaving his cloak behind as if it weren't strange he had just appeared out of nowhere, Draco wandered to the front doors of the store.

Above the doors to the department store was a large purple and teal banner that read 'GRAND OPENING' and he pushed on the glass doors to enter.  He stood just inside for a moment, hanging by the entrance without moving.  It didn't take long to find what he was looking for, and any of the fear or doubt he may have been feeling before finding his target disappeared.

Leaving his spot by the doors, Draco strolled over to the girl greeting customers as they entered.  Her golden blonde hair fell in waves just to her shoulders.  She wore a black skirt that fell just above her knee, a black jacket with two buttons done, and a lilac blouse.  Strands of gold jewelry hung from her neck and she turned to him smiling like she had to all the others, but her hand stilled, fingers curling into a fist.

"Draco," she said, voice weak.

"Melody," he replied.

"What are you doing here?"

Fishing through his pocket, Draco extracted the newspaper clipping and handed it over to her.  "I saw the article about the opening of your store in the paper.  Congratulations.  I know how you always wanted your own business."

"Thank you."

"I read that you would be greeting the customers from noon until five.  It's four-fifty-five right now.  That means you get off in five minutes."

"Draco-"

"I just want to talk, Melody.  We could go to my place and discuss things."

"I don't know.  What about -"

"Cherish?"  She shrugged, nodding.  "Cherish isn't even home.  She's away at school."

"She goes away to school?"

"Yes.  In Scotland.  To the same school that I went to.  Believe me, I'm not asking you to come back into our lives for good.  I'm sure you have your own life and we have ours.  I'm not asking you to be Cherish's mother.  As far as I'm concerned, Cherish doesn't have a mother.  She has me and I'm all she needs as I've been raising her just fine on my own.  You may have given birth to her, but you aren't her mother.  All I want to do is talk."

"Draco-"

"All I'm asking is to talk.  We don't even have to go back to my flat.  Where are you staying?"

"At an inn just down the road."

"Would you rather we go there?"

"I don't know, Draco."

"Listen, Melody, I need to talk to you.  The last time I saw you -" his voice trailed off and he noticed that she avoided his eyes.  "Well, you left rather abruptly and I feel I need to explain some things to you."

"You need to explain some things to me?"

"Yes.  I'm not here to yell at you, Melody.  Eleven years is more than enough time for the anger to diminish.  When we - er - had our falling out, there were some things that I was keeping from you.  Things that I think you deserve to know.  You deserve to know the whole truth.  I don't want anything out of you, Melody.  I just want to talk.  I want to explain."

She checked her watch.  "Okay.  Look, I have to go let them know I'm leaving.  Stay here.  I'll be back in five minutes."

~*~

"What did you want to talk about?" said Melody once they had gotten back to the inn she was staying at.  "You said you had something to explain to me?"

"Er - yes.  Do you remember the big fight we had just before you left?"

"Of course I do.  You told me that you were still too much in love with your ex-boyfriend and you were never going to marry me.  It's the reason I left in the first place."

Draco nodded.  "Do you remember what started the whole fight in the first place?"

"Joel. . .Joel was starting to write his Morgan Straker books."

"You've heard of them, I presume."

"I read them."

"What happened to magic being evil?"

"It's only fiction, remember?"

He nodded a second time.  "Do you have a pencil or a pen?  Something of your own that you can be positive I haven't tampered with it in any way?"  She looked at him oddly, cocking her eyebrow.  "Trust me."

Undoing the zipper on her purse, Melody began to search through her belongings until she extracted a pen and handed it to Draco.  "What is this all about, anyway?"

Before she had a chance to say anything else, Draco had pulled a long stick of wood out from his pocket, murmured a few words under his breath.  Lying in place of the pen was a dagger.  The handle was made of sterling silver and was encrusted with emeralds.  The blade was razor sharp and it glistened in the light.

"What -"

"This is why I got so defensive when you said that all magic was evil," he almost whispered.  "I'm a wizard."

"You're a wizard."

"Yes.  I'm a wizard."

"You're kidding, right?"

"No, I'm not.  I just transfigured your pen into a dagger.  Does it look like I'm kidding?"

"Well. . ." she said, mouth hanging open, speechless.  "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you deserve to know the truth about me and Harry."

"You and Harry?"

"Yes.  Harry.  My ex-boyfriend.  You deserve to know the truth.  I couldn't marry you because of him and you deserve to know why."

Her jaw trembled as he mouth hung open, not knowing what to say.  For lack of a better answer, she nodded and said, "Okay," before sitting down and waiting as Draco tumbled out the story from the beginning with Voldemort's fall all the way to his arrival in New York.

"So you see," he said once he had finished explaining, "I couldn't be with you.  Harry and I . . . we're too much a part of one another.  I never meant to hurt you in any way.  I just couldn't marry you.  It wouldn't have been fair to either one of us.  Over the years I've come to believe in fate and that everything happens for a reason.  You left and I accept that.  It's a part of our fate and I wouldn't be where I am today if you wouldn't have gone.  Things were rough for awhile, but a lot of good came out of it.  I don't begrudge you anything.  Cherish and I were fine on our own."

"So - you said she goes to the school you went to."

"Yes.  Cherish is a witch.  She just got on the train two days ago for her first year at Hogwarts.  Since you read the books and in case you care, she's a Ravenclaw."

"I see.  Why. . .well, why did you leave New York?"

"Harry," he replied.  "We're back together.  Engaged, actually.  He proposed to me six months ago and we're going to be married when Cherish comes home for Christmas holidays.  He showed up in New York a little over two years ago and we've been together ever since.  It was Joel, actually, who convinced me to come home.  He was right.  I belong here."

"When you say 'home,' and 'here,' you mean with other witches and wizards."

"Yes.  I mean magic folk."

"And that was why you got so angry with me when I said magic was a tool of Satan."

"Yes.  I was, quite frankly, personally offended."

"Well thank you for telling me, Draco."

"You deserved to know.  I thought you should know.  Maybe I was wrong."

"No.  I - I appreciate it."  She picked up the dagger, holding it close to her body.  "May I keep this?"

"It's your pen," he said grinning.  "I reckon it's time that we part forever."

"Are you - what I mean is-"

"No.  I'm not going to tell Cherish I came to see you.  She doesn't need to know and I don't want to burden her with that."

Melody nodded.  "I suppose it's for the best."

"I think so as well.  Goodbye, Melody."  He kissed the back of her palm before disapparating from the room.

~*~

"And where have you been all day?" came a teasing voice from behind and Draco turned to see Harry staring at him from the kitchen table.  "I hear you called off from work today and yet you weren't here when I came home to check on you."

"Must I always tell you where I'm going?"

"Of course not.  I was just curious."

"You always were rather nosy."

Harry shrugged standing up and crossing the room to wrap his arms around Draco.  "So where were you really?  You've been gone all day long, and dressed like a muggle, no less."

Draco paused, hesitating, but he then reached back into his pocket to produce the newspaper clipping.  He held it tight in his fist before reluctantly handing it over to Harry.  Smoothing it out, Harry read over the blurb about the department store, Melody's, named after the owner.  His brow crinkled, clearly not understanding what it meant.

"You went shopping?" he guessed.

"No," he said softly.  "I went to see Mel."

"Mel?"  Harry shook his head, eyes searching Draco's for some sort of clue, but Draco almost laughed when Harry finally got it.  His eyes darkened as a hint of recognition came over his face.  "Mel as in Melody?  Cherish's mother, Melody?"

"The one and the same."

"This is her?" he asked waving the clipping at him.

"Yeah."

"And you went to see her?"

"There's no reason to get upset.  It wasn't like I shagged her again or anything."

"No. . .I didn't think you did.  Just - well?  Why?"

"I had to tell her.  She deserved to know the truth."

"About -"

"Yeah."

"How did she take it?"

"I'm still in one piece and I did arm her so I'm taking that as a good sign."

"Are you okay?  How could - Why didn't you tell me?"  Harry pulled Draco close into him, nuzzling into his neck.  "Were you alright?  I mean, I know that it came as a surprise when she left you and -"

"I was fine, Harry."  A smile crossed Draco's face as he looked into Harry's eyes.  "Just. . .don't tell Cherish, okay?  I don't want her to know.  This was my battle, not hers.  Mel left without a word to me.  I needed closure."

"Did you find it?"

"Yeah.  I think I did."

_Finish_

*~*~*~*~*

**Loved something?  Hated something?  Tell me in a REVIEW or email me at angeldlsm00@hotmail.com **

**That's it.  I'm sorry to say it's over.  If you have a question or a comment that you want a reply to, please email me at the above address.  Reviews are not only encouraged, but welcomed. You also may contact me via AOL Instant Messanger.  My screen name is FoxyD227.**

**If you didn't like the way it ended, well I'm sorry.  Make up your own ending mentally.**

**Thank you to anyone who has read and/or reviewed this in the past and will read and/or review it in the future, especially:**

**Dark Peppermint (_it's okay to aw every once in a while_****), deedee (_Francois and Joel will miss you, too_****), Koneko Tenshi (_Becoming?  Only becoming a great story?  Pssh – lol_****), Skysong (Wasn't it amazing?  Joel said something intelligent****), Liz Swarthy (_Draco + Furry animal + Joel = cute!_****), Aeris Tsukiyono (_Welcome to the Joel Fanclub.  I really should start keeping track of the registry_****), Hikari Kura (_I hope this answers some of your questions_****), Aishiteru Tenshi (_Continue, I did_****), Fate's Child (_Still not too much information.  I was vomiting all night long in the bathroom at my sister's school concert and then I started dry heaving because I couldn't even keep water down, but I ate an ice pop and it made the vomit blue.  Was that too much information for you?_****), Leigh – Jane (_I'm sorry that there was no Francois to satiate your need for odd French men in this chapter.  I should look into writing the chronicles of Francois and Joel_****), …**** (_Cherish is adorable, and certainly trouble, but nothing Draco can't handle.  *wink*  He was a hellion himself._****), Lulily (_You think it's bad I left it there.  In my other story, I ended a chapter letting people think I knocked off Draco.  I like cliffies like that._****), Fallen Angel (_I like your name.  Ironically, I wrote a song called 'Fallen Angel'.  It was also my band name.  Anyway…I'm sorry there wasn't more interaction between the three._****), Fanny chan ****(_Sylvester must be adored_****), Amethyst (_Amethyst is my birth stone.  Draco doesn't really__ look forty.  That was Joel exaggerating and trying to make his point._****), Kumagorou (_Joel didn't come with exactly but he certainly didn't stay away.  Nothing can keep Joel from his best friend._****), iloveanime456 (_I LOVE my reviewers.  Thank you.  Tis more than deserve_****), Rois m.t. Lylthe ****(_They are happy and that is all that matters_****), SIAS (_Well, he went, and I hope it makes you happy_****), Yoink Daydurfurits (_I adore this story, too.  Glad we agree_****), Tine (_I'm glad you like the story so much.  Gods, who ever thought someone would say Joel was like Dumbledore.  Joel knows you'll wait a long time for someone to like you.  Everyone thinks he's a freak._****), Temptress (_They didn't exactly go to __Rome__, but they did go to Hogsmeade, and that is saying something_****), OzCrow (_Thank you.  I hope this was great, too._****), Evil Laughter (_The vice president of my Joel fan club!  I did get your email, as I replied, and sorry, no jam balloons, but Joel is__ yours, darling._****), SparkySparkles (_I hope it was as great as you knew it was going to be.  I hate having to live up to expectations._****), Misty (_Draco appears to have agreed with you_****), Madame Padfoot (_Hahaha__.  Draco Potter.  He'd write to Lucius in Azkaban about that one.  Draco Potter and his half-blood daughter.  Oh, the amusement I get from that.  I should have done it._****), YG (_I suppose Harry could have stayed but Cherish decided they were going.  Just a little plot point, eh?  In Harry's defense, he did say that he might stay if Draco refused…_****),  To everyone else I've already replied to, thank you once again.  Look for 'Falling' if you like my work, or 'Overheard'.  Keep in touch and keep Harry and Draco in your hearts because, really, they make the most perfect couple ever.**

**Hugs and Kisses,**

**~*~Kiara~*~**


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